I hear a lot of different comments when someone finds out I co-run The Letter Writers Alliance. One of the ones I never really understood is "So you must really hate email!" I suppose I get the reaction - because I am promoting an analog way of communication, I must want to abolish the digital version that is slowly dragging it to its grave, right? Yeah, not really.
Firstly, I don't consider letter writing a "dying art." It is very much alive, but it is gaining popularity in a different way than what it used to be. There is a tool for every job, and that is exactly how I feel about email, Twitter, and letters. They all have their place in our daily lives, Donovan and I are just trying to make letters more of an everyday occurrence.
There is no denying that letters are the most intimate form of long-distance correspondence we have available, but it must also live side by side with our digital lives. A lot of my mail art ideas come from things I see online, free downloads I find, or museum's digital archives. I gather what I see in the digital and turn it into a physical communication. That is how letter writing will survive now. No matter how easy technology makes our lives, you can never take away our desire to create something tangible and our want to share that with someone we admire.
Hear, hear sister!!!
Posted by: JJalltheway | Friday, September 28, 2012 at 12:02 AM