Letter Writing - A dying tradition?😭😇😭

We live in a world of ever changing modes of communication. Gone are those days when writing letters was a conventional mark for the intellectual and spiritual growth of a person. Ever since language was invented, the nature of writing has been constantly evolving. With all these aids; a pen to a printing press, a computer to the mobile phone and emails to text messages, the journey has brought about a break through in our primary urge to communicate.

Undoubtedly,technological advancement has been the advent of a revolutionary change in the way we write. Sending an email or a text has taken over the art of letter writing allowing the old traditions to fade away with little notice.After all, only those things are missed that have no better replacement. We now live in a post literate society, where emails and texts have altered how we write and communicate. With the growing need to socialize and the global community becoming more integrated, the access to reach a larger audience is considered to be priceless. The youth especially is irresistibly drawn to the exposure these forums provide, they have become a form of expression where your thoughts can be as public or private as you wish and you can be in complete control.

Undeniably, these electronic forms of communication are much more efficient, in this fast paced world where individuals would greatly prefer a fast system of to and fro conversation or deliverance of information. That is not to say that people are solely vested in the professional working of the system, in fact the variation found in these forms of communication, ranging from television messages to video calls provides greater enticement for the people, who find it preferable to the simplicity of letters.🤳🤳🤳👌

I fear however, that the passion and intimacy that letters conveyed is absent from the current forms of communication. Evidence of this lies in the fact that even today letters of esteemed personalities are studied, including those of Iqbal and Lincoln and are considered ideals for learning the art of conversation and as academic journals. But these have been confined to mere academic pursuits. As writing or posting a letter is considered a waste and such people are labelled as sentimentalists, holding onto traditions that are no longer suitable.

Perhaps, it can also be argued that individuals today can be more accurately described as realists, who cling onto the logic of efficiency and hence value above all else, that which provides tangible benefits which provides tangible benefits and room for exploration. Although some may consider letters to have expired their usefulness, persuading many to term them unimportant yet we can not but deny that this deflection from the letter writing and rise of email and text writing has given way to a more colloquial, and informal way of writing.

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