I was watching "You've Got Mail" today to pass the time. (I have been going a little crazy with Noah being stuck in the house sick again.) I watched and started to wonder about the way email has changed things and then how texting, twitter, facebook, and myspace have changed it even more. It made me think about how different things were for me being a teenager dating in the 90's. Some changes are great... no huge long distance phone bills if you have a "special someone" who lives in a different area code (thanks to cell phones), or no everyone sharing one phone line no doubt located in the noisy family room until you finally get your own room with your own phone. There is now no worrying about a sibling picking up the other line to evesdrop on your all important conversation. No busy signal if you have a boyfriend whos mom loves to chat with her friends on the phone... now you just call HIS cell.
Then I started to think about what what teenagers these days might be missing. I thought of what I would miss the most and I must say I wouldn't trade all of the above "improvements" for this one missing thing.... LOVE LETTERS!!! Do teenagers write real pen and paper love letters anymore?? I bet most of them don't. That had to be one of my favorite parts of being a teenager "in love". The butterflies you would get when your boyfriend handed you that folded up piece of paper... or checking the mailbox every day when you knew a letter was coming through the mail. But most of all the thing I would miss the most about real love letters was when you have to sit for sometimes hours at a time to think about the things you want to say and then have to write them out with your very hands, I think something magical happens... you bare your soul. You put your feeling out there in a way that you just don't in 160 characters. You open yourself up and feel emotions that sometimes it takes time to bring up... time you don't spend sending a text. Yes, there have been some great things that have come from the advances in technology. Don't get me wrong because I love my facebook, but I think I just might love the old letters I have from family, friends, and boyfriends (including my now husband) just a little bit more.
2 comments:
So I don't get your title BUT I just had this converstaion with Cody. I told him that EVERY anniversary I wanted a card and I didn't even care if I got everything else because I wanted HIS handwriting, with HIS words of how much he loved me, on PAPER! we do live in different times and sometimes it's awesome like when he is gone and we can still see each other over the computer but blows because I don't have those awesome love letters you talked about. Crazy how much our minds think a like.
Truthfully ... I have a huge book of letters between Trent and me before we were married. LONG letters. You know, 10-15 pagers. And I was reading them the other day and got depressed. Really depressed. We just don't communicate that way anymore. Sad, huh?
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