¶ Mail mail
I asked my students whether any of them, ever, under any circumstances, sent actual letters on paper, using stamps and envelopes, to other people. One student tentatively raised his hand.
“I have this old violin teacher. She refuses to use email,” he said, “She sends me a letter and I have to write one back.”
I asked if he though that was cool or kind of weird. “It’s kinda weird,” he replied.
I can’t say why it bugs me, because I don’t write letters myself. But something about it does. Maybe I should start writing letters just to have a reason to think that the lack of letter writing is the downfall of civilization today, but that seems a little bit, well, artificial to me.
On the other hand, artificiality might be more comfortable than trying to overcome my self-righteous curmudgeonity.
5 January 2008
# Comment by Ellen Patton on Jan 6, 04:26 PM:
That definitely bugs me. Letters are great. I got one from Q.E. just yesterday!