As a literary enthusiast I feel it is my duty to point out that we have a crisis on our hands! In contemporary times, our words have lost their meanings. So long are the love letters, the quintessential childhood passing of notes, the post cards from afar and now the demise of the spoken word. Replacing our tangible treasures is the mindless revolution of texting, facebooking, and e-mailing. While technology has given us many conveniences and has become vital to our progression, it has likewise robbed us of our sentiment. Placed in a box for safekeeping under my mother’s bed are letters, birthday cards and postcards from family and friends. I soon realize that my written memories are all virtually stored in abundance, retrievable only via modern technology. I am troubled by this dying sentiment, unsettled that somewhere in cyber space the words of my generation are left ambiguous and delete-able.
While various forms of social media have increased the volume and ability of our communication, it has diminished the substance of it. We live in a time where we can instantly communicate with anyone, anywhere and anytime around the world. This has allotted us substantial growth by means of information sharing but has nonetheless set us back in content. The short, imperfect and informal nature of our communication has moved us into an age of personal thoughtless blather. Less is expected of us when it comes to communication; our tone is understood through emoticons, extra letters accenting certain words and an understood Internet code language.
The Zuckerberg revolution, aka the creation of Facebook, has singlehandedly changed the way our generation communicates. We have become cyborg-like in that our personalities can be understood by a quick glance at our profile and what we chose to electronically convey. Ironically, the more we text, post and chat the more interacting we lose. Our words and their meaning are lost in the sending and receiving. While literary and communicative triumphs once expanded our world, such as the invention of moveable type and the postal service, the “at our fingertips” revolution, Facebook being the protagonist, has shrunken our literary culture to three simple forms: messaging, e-mail and chat.
Not to sound like a stone-age romantic, as I too guiltlessly indulge in modern marvels, but I find it saddening that writing “Happy Birthday” on a friends wall is supplementary to a birthday card, text-flirting has replaced sweet phone calls and letters from far away friends are substituted by shapeless e-mails. In a world where we are endlessly tempted to swap reality for the cyber, I propose we are losing our paper trail. While it may not sound detrimental to us now I, however, feel envious of my mother with her paper life neatly stashed under her bed for joyful reminiscing whenever she needs it most.
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I completely agree–but it hasn’t affected everyone. As an avid facebook logger, I continue to write letters to my friends (even if they live in the same city as I), make pretty homemade birthday cards (as well as post on their wall). call even just to catch up, and used the web cam to stay in touch. It’s up to us to decide whether or not we should go along with this new revolution with technology. Therefore, we must use it to our advantage as well as continue old traditions. There’s no way it can be erased.
As much as it’s great to have pretty much anyone at the touch of a keyboard or phone, I still love snail mail-always have. There’s something magical for me about sending or receiving a beloved note/card/etc. in the mail. Here’s to kickin’ it old school with paper and pen (or crazy colorful markers, crayons, glitter paint, and all things wondiferous!)!
I totally agree. I like to post comments on peoples wall when they’re not close friends. I always try to call my friends at 0:00 on their birthdays to be the first to greet them . I was just writting a letter for 2 of my BFs and I realized it’s been a really long time since a the last letter I wrote (can’t even remeber)
That’s why http://www.moreloveletters.com is a GREAT site. Even though you may not know the people you’re writing to, you’re making their day. And there isn’t a reason we can’t sit down and write letters to our loved ones. Or send a birthday card.
Well said! I do have one pen pal and that came about by sending 10 letters out and only recieving 3 in return. That was 2 yrs ago and I still have one left. It is so nice to look in the mailbox and have something other than a bill!
i have been thinking about this recently too! its really disappointing. i going to try to start writing letters to my friends soon i decided. hopefully they will be into it though…..
Sooo true I sometimes wish we had to call someone to see how they are or mail letters and cards to say happy birthday. I think the internet has changed the way we interact so much. I miss the old ways of communication.
Yes. Profiles seem to reduce us to things we do and like. The Happy Birthday message on Facebook is nice, but birthday cards are way more meaningful. Written letters are so much better than emails. Being able to feel the grooves the pen made is sublime. I recently wrote an actual letter to a friend. It felt great.