# How has the internet changed your correspondence?



## Chaska Ñawi

Up until about thirteen years ago I mailed voluminous handwritten letters, copiously illustrated and stuffed with photos and clippings.    I wrote regularly to various family members and a host of penpals.  Once my daughter was born and I had less time, I resorted to typing all the English letters on the computer.  They went out unillustrated, but still accompanied by various odds and ends.  A few years later, I opened my first email account and my correspondence changed forever.

Now I only pick up a pen if I am writing to the odd friend or great-aunt who refuses to use email; and among these people only one very dear friend receives letters with little illustrations decorating all the margins.  On the other hand, I'm in much more frequent contact with my family and other friends.  When I think about it, some of us have truly revived the Victorian tradition of daily correspondence at its most meaningful.  My virtual correspondence contains a sprinkle of forwarded jokes and photos instead of a collection of cartoons, clippings, and Kodak duplicates.  I've also scanned the odd piece of artwork.  My penpals have been replaced by forer@s on this and one other forum, although we exchange the occasional piece of paper on the side.

How has your correspondence changed with the advent of the internet?


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## Etcetera

Greatly. But the first blow on my correspondence stroke not the Internet, but the mobile phone. Sms have always been relatively cheap, even cheaper than a piece of paper and an envelope; it will reach your addressee in less than a minute, and you'll receive an answer equally quickly. 
As for e-mail, yes, it's in a way more convenient: you don't have to go to the post, to buy an envelope, to wait till you letter will be delivered and your friend will write you a letter. Same thing with postcards. Now, with the numerous on-line services, what's the point of spending money on postcards?..
Last year, a virtual friend of mine posted in her blog a suggestion for her friends: to exchange addresses and send each other a New Year postcard. A _real _New Year postcard. It was truly great - to hold in your hands a card signed by a person whom you knew previously on the Net only... We'll do the same this year. I already have a long list of my friends who are to receive a card from me. 
But there's something really sad about it - that we only exchange real cards and letters on holidays.


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## Victoria32

Etcetera said:


> Greatly. But the first blow on my correspondence stroke not the Internet, but the mobile phone. Sms have always been relatively cheap, even cheaper than a piece of paper and an envelope; it will reach your addressee in less than a minute, and you'll receive an answer equally quickly.
> As for e-mail, yes, it's in a way more convenient: you don't have to go to the post, to buy an envelope, to wait till you letter will be delivered and your friend will write you a letter. Same thing with postcards. Now, with the numerous on-line services, what's the point of spending money on postcards?..
> Last year, a virtual friend of mine posted in her blog a suggestion for her friends: to exchange addresses and send each other a New Year postcard. A _real _New Year postcard. It was truly great - to hold in your hands a card signed by a person whom you knew previously on the Net only... We'll do the same this year. I already have a long list of my friends who are to receive a card from me.
> But there's something really sad about it - that we only exchange real cards and letters on holidays.


I have a couple of good friends, three really, I had been writing to the 'oldest' of them since 1984... Then one by one they got email... I write just as frequently to only one of them, the first to get email, I have almost completely lost touch with (which might have happened anyway - she has got married and divorced, I have had changes of job).
I write almost daily to some people, which is brilliant, and chat almost daily with people in Italy, which I could not have done pre-Internet, so on balance, it is a great thing! 

VL


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## janezhang88

I just wonder who could still mail handwritten letters nowadays? at least i dont. we have internet,cell phone, all of which are more quickly and convenient than previous ways. several years ago, i sent a greetingcard to my friends who lives in America,(at that time, we did contact by internet, but a card with my personal handwritten greeting is meaningful),two weeks past, she still hasnt got it, finally,it was lost.since then, i only prefer exchanging by email.

But one point i worried, more we type letters on the computer; more we dont know how to handwrite in a piece of paper


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## charisma_classic

My mother still dutifully handwrites letters to our family in Australia, though she uses the internet for most other communication (e-mails to family in the U.S.) However, she did not update to e-mail until my sister moved out of the country and she realized that, as janez mentioned, the "snail mail" system is not very speedy at all. 

She still writes and posts letters to my sister and me, but uses e-mail as well. I must say that I found it quite a relief when she got an e-mail address, since that is certainly my preferred method of communication! It is so much faster, if a bit impersonal.


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## janezhang88

charisma_classic said:


> My mother still dutifully handwrites letters to our family in Australia, though she uses the internet for most other communication (e-mails to family in the U.S.) However, she did not update to e-mail until my sister moved out of the country and she realized that, as janez mentioned, the "snail mail" system is not very speedy at all.
> 
> She still writes and posts letters to my sister and me, but uses e-mail as well. I must say that I found it quite a relief when she got an e-mail address, since that is certainly my preferred method of communication! It is so much faster, if a bit impersonal.


My mom doesn't know how to use the computer,we live in the same city,once we need contact, just use cell phone.I wonder what she will do if we have chance to go abroade,maybe she will try learning modern technic.


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## JazzByChas

I will say that I used to abhor writing longhand...it made my neck and arm and wrist very sore, especially after a long writing assignment. And having to erase or mark out ink was equally bothersome. Now, I find that with typing on a computer, I can keep up with the speed of my thoughts much better, and can express myself more clearly!

I absolutely love the internet for correspondence...most of my friends and I either use the phone or emails to correspond. In fact, even if I write a "snail mail" letter, I type it in my wordprocessing software (MS Word). And then I affirm my signature to it. In fact, most of my handwritten writing is just to add my signature...or to write checks, which I do less and less _(thank goodness for online bill paying!_)... I find that correspondence is just as personal if I type it, rather than writing long-hand (and more legible, I might add!)  

I might suggest to Chaska Nawi that you can insert pictures in an electronic document, including "clip art." Some examples would be photographs.


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## lsp

How has the internet changed my correspondence? It has ruined my penmanship, damaged my spelling, made me impatient with my parents and a few others who refuse to plug in, and allowed me to maintain frequent contact with everyone else in a way I would never have done in "the old days." But heaven help me when I need to find a stamp!!


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## Cereth

It has turned me into and addict who checks her inbox more than 6 times a day and anxiously waiting for her penpals to write almost daily....
Well it is said that all the people will develop some kind of addiction once, so this is mine.

Handwritten letters are obviously superior, but awfully slower and problematic.
God bless internet!


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## Calamitintin

I _like_ internet because it is quick and reliable for mails, but I _love_ real mails (sending and getting) because I know the writer has spent time just for me, and that he/she thinks I am worth it  I send mails everyday, but I still write paper letters very often (more or less every week), for everywhere in the world (Italy, China, France, Canada,...and I live in Germany  ), so even the distance doesn't prevent me from writing


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## pidgeon

I miss writing letters. I used to when I was little, I remmeber writing letters to aunties, grandparents etc, but now no-one really has time for letters anymore. I think that it is a tragedy. I cannot write to save my life, I use a computer at school and at home, but I will have to write with a fountain pen for my exams, and I am seriously worried that the examiners will nto be able to read my writing! Also I write so much slower than I type, I can type an essay in an hour, but it takes me three or four hours to write it out, even in messy writing. 

It's a shame that we are now not using pens so much anymore, but maybe this is the future? What would you feel about that - everyone types, no-onw writes at all apart from signing their name!
Don't make me think about it........

LONG LIVE THE PEN!


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## Trina

For me (and certainly for my friends), emailing is the answer. I used to write long letters, which by the time they were revised & rewritten (it would be at least three drafts before I felt it was ready to be sent), all the topics I had covered were outdated, resulting in that letter being filed away into my bottom drawer. This bottom drawer became a joke among my friends. When a letter actually made it through to the postal system, my friends felt as if they had won the lottery.

Now, some of my emails are still as long but I quickly press the send button after the second draft. My friends are thrilled.

Another huge plus I have found with emails is that unlike  writing a letter where you need a beginning, a middle & an end, you can just write a couple of lines & press send.
To stop that "bottom-drawer-filing" thing from happening again, I have created a sign-off line to soften the ending if I feel that my email finishes too abruptly.


> Leaving this as that,
> Trina


Now I can even finish mid-sentence  



janezhang88 said:


> [...]
> But one point i worried, more we type letters on the computer; more we dont know how to handwrite in a piece of paper


Yes, this is a problem. I used to have lovely handwriting (so I was told) but now unless the page is lined, I cannot write in a straight line (to compensate when writing a card I write diagonally but it still looks crooked).  Even the shape of the lettering is messy.

The only time I use snail mail these days is to send greeting cards or postcards. I fear that this will one day  change as well. Last Christmas a couple of my friends started sending virtual cards by email. For now, I'm sticking with the real thing.



Cereth said:


> It has turned me into and addict who checks her inbox more than 6 times a day and anxiously waiting for her penpals to write almost daily....
> Well it is said that all the people will develop some kind of addiction once, so this is mine.[...]


Uh-oh!  Six months ago, people were phoning me to ask me to check my inbox. Three months ago, I checked them daily. Today, I am once in the morning and then half an hour before I shut down my computer (just in case I have to send back a quick reply). I can see an addiction developing (I wonder if there are any meetings I could attend?)


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## bianconera

lsp said:


> How has the internet changed my correspondence? It has ruined my penmanship, damaged my spelling, made me impatient with my parents and a few others who refuse to plug in, and allowed me to maintain frequent contact with everyone else in a way I would never have done in "the old days." But heaven help me when I need to find a stamp!!


This is so funny!   I think that now that I even pay my bills on the net I hardly even buy stamps!  How lazy of me!  
I still enjoy writing.  I have calligraphy kits and I prefer pen and paper for an agenda instead of writing in or having a personal electronic organizer. So this how I keep up my spelling.... I still love stationaries and have pen collections.  But e-mails have saved me money when I travel and going on line for shopping and so much more.  Again, how lazy of me!


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## janezhang88

"But e-mails have saved me money when I travel and going on line for shopping and so much more. Again, how lazy of me!"

Yes, that is the one of the benefits of internet---save money and save time, wherever you are, you can access interent,checking mailbox, how happy when you get a warm greeting from friends, just like they are beside you.

Many years ago,the way we contacted with clients often was fax,if there was something urgent,we just made phone call,overseas calling always make us cost rise,so internet correspondence have changed our working style.

Each day,one of the most excited moment is checking my inbox.some one love writing long letters;but some are in opposite side


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## Chaska Ñawi

JazzByChas said:


> I might suggest to Chaska Nawi that you can insert pictures in an electronic document, including "clip art." Some examples would be photographs.



You could ..... or you could re-read the original entry and notice that I already am.


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## lsp

janezhang88 said:


> Yes, that is the one of the benefits of internet---save money and save time...


To me, this is funny! I save money and time on one task, and then get distracted by something like... um... say, WORDREFERENCE D) and then hours are lost that might have been spent doing something like... um... say, writing a letter - no I'm kidding about that part. But I spend (waste) so much time on the internet now I wonder about how much times it's saved. And when I see my cable bill, which now includes my high speed connection, and my computer with all its accessories that I now want to upgrade sooner than ever before, I also wonder how much money I save. It's like my cell phone, which I originally wanted "only for emergencies." How quickly I have adapted past that modest need!


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## janezhang88

"But I spend (waste) so much time on the internet now I wonder about how much times it's saved. "

That is the way you write, but i just meant the way we mail,comparing to the "snail letter",email does save our time.


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## lsp

janezhang88 said:


> "But I spend (waste) so much time on the internet now I wonder about how much times it's saved. "
> 
> That is the way you write, but i just meant the way we mail,comparing to the "snail letter",email does save our time.


Yeah, I know...  I guess I wasn't too clear then. I was only remarking on the irony of that in a larger context.


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## geve

When I was a child I would write extended letters on one very specific occasion: to my parents and my sisters, when I went on holidays on my own. These letters would come with drawings and jokes and sometimes even small objects when the letter was for my younger sister (a handmade puzzle, a pinch of sand, a candy...). 
When I was a teenager we would sometimes exchange extended letters of this kind with my friends (not on the same topics, though!). 
Then as a young adult, writing was not something I'd frequently indulge in... apart from a few postcards now and then, or Chistmas cards to a handful of people who live abroad.
In 2004 circumstances made it that I was in a mood "what's the point in sending season's greetings when we perfectly know that statistically not everyone is going to have a great year". And that was the end of the last few New Year cards that I would send.
Family holiday letters have disappeared too I'm afraid. When we go on holidays, my sisters send postcards, my father sends SMS, and if I'm gone for a while I e-mail... (I tend to forget my address book when I go on holidays!) 
Now when I send or receive extended snail mail letters is mainly on sad occasions I'm afraid, when e-mail doesn't seem to do the trick.

So actually, at the time I got familiar with the internet, I didn't write that much already, and it did increase my written communication with friends and family a lot. It's also helped me stay friends with people I would have lost touch with if it weren't for e-mail. 

In spite of this, I manage to keep a readable handwriting, because I often have to take notes at work. Also, when I have sudden highly philosophical thoughts in places where there is no access to a computer (say, the subway), I take out my notebook. No electronic organizer or blackberry for me, no thank you!
And I still buy stamps, to send my doctor bills to the Sécurité Sociale.


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## janezhang88

geve said:


> And I still buy stamps, to send my doctor bills to the Sécurité Sociale.


 
I havent bought stamps and letter paper for many years.i even never care the cost of each ordinary letter.But i did when i was in university,at that time, i was in love with my husband who studied in another city, how did we contact in the state of neither email nor cell phone, it was letter,only letter like a bridge linked us. I always bought many stamps and letter paper once, and wrote almost every two days. I just hope i could hear from him every day. It was really happy and excited moment when getting his letters. a warm feeling around me when reading those familiar handwritten words.

Nowadays, i have never got handwritten letters,apart from spams occasionally.mostly i just throw them in the dustbin without any unsealing.

I am wondering who are still keep writting letter with pen?


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## lsp

It suddenly dawned on me today, thinking about this thread, how _lucky_ I am to have a shoebox full of dog-eared, wrinkled, fading, handwritten love letters!


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## roxcyn

The internet has changed my life a little bit.  I *still* write to pen pals (I started writing to pen pals about 10 years ago).  I prefer writing letters to email, unless the email is for a quick note.  I feel a letter is more personal, plus it is a system that takes longer so you look forward to receiving it.

SMS is okay, but I would rather call than SMS.  For me, I think Instant Messenger has been a big impact.  Some people that I would not have been able to keep in contact such as friends or other pen pals who moved or who never got my letters, I can still communicate with them through instant messenger.


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## panjandrum

It's good to see that writing by hand is alive and well. I don't think I could survive without the soothing therapy of writing with a real pen, using real ink, on real paper.


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## geve

panjandrum said:


> It's good to see that writing by hand is alive and well. I don't think I could survive without the soothing therapy of writing with a real pen, using real ink, on real paper.


I think that more than just the internet, computers change our way of writing (or even of thinking) and therefore our correspondence. With a word processor, you can move whole parts of sentences around, you can invert the order of your paragraphs, you can replace a word with another, you can hit control-Z faster than it takes to say "white correcting fluid"... Using computers tends to shape our brains (at least I feel it shaped _my_ brain!), and getting back to a different way of processing words can be hard.


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## lsp

And if one pays attention, having the spell check and thesaurus so handy can be very educational. Unfortunately it's more often like driving with someone else who knows the route - if you rely on someone else for direction, you can't get to the same place on your own the next time unless you paid attention, but it becomes too easy not to do so.


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## janezhang88

Another profit of email is that we needn't worry about where we keep those old mails,just save them in our computer!


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## comikang

I prefer SMS to Email, especially to contact with those familiary friends. Usually I send more than one thousand short messages a month by mobile phone, but Email just for job need. 

The most internet helps me is its chat system with video equipment, just like Janezhang88, my girlfriend studys in another city, almost every week we see each other by OICQ or MSN.


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## Hutschi

Hi, all,

the unification of Germany changed the prices of stamps significantly. So I did not write letters because I almost immediately became unemployed after the unification and could not pay stamps anymore for some time. 

So there was an interruption of letter-writing.

The internet gave me a new chance. I had work again, and I wrote many letters using E-Mail, and I attended some forums.

But there is nothing alike a good fountain-pen-written letter with real paper.

Best regards 
Bernd


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## JazzByChas

Here, I must agree with the m'oiselle. Word processing on computers has made communicating much more efficient, and much faster, and much easier to edit. I suppose it may be relaxing and perhaps soothing to write a letter by hand...but I would probably write it on a computer first, and hope that it is a short letter at that!  

(And don't forget, chère m'oiselle, there is also, as well as the "white correcting fluid" of the keyboard, the Control-Z combination, our friend the "Backspace" key...)  




			
				geve said:
			
		

> computers change our way of writing (or even of thinking) and therefore our correspondence. With a word processor, you can move whole parts of sentences around, you can invert the order of your paragraphs, you can replace a word with another, you can hit control-Z faster than it takes to say "white correcting fluid"... Using computers tends to shape our brains (at least I feel it shaped _my_ brain!), and getting back to a different way of processing words can be hard.


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## karuna

I rarely write with a pen nowadays, but really it is not because of my bad handwriting or unwillingness but because there really is no need for it. I usually use e-mail or if the recipient does not use e-mail then I can type a letter on computer and print it out and mail it. But the last time when I was travelling I found myself a need to send a letter to someone but I had no immediate access to the printer, I simply sat down and wrote a letter by hand and mailed it from the post office. It seemed very natural and I wasn't thinking that it is something unusual or that maybe I should find an Internet cafe that can print out my letter. So, I am sure that I can still write a letter with pen, if needed.

In fact, I find that even when writing e-mail letters I spend as much time thinking how to express myself better as much as if I would be writing a normal letter by hand. I don't like instant messaging because it distracts my concentration as much as phone conversation while pretending that it doesn't. Actually I always wonder why so many people in my work send me e-mail letters in SMS style, completely ignoring orthography and spelling. It is especially prominent among Indians, who otherwise act as very serious businessmen but would often write "i send this proposal 2 u". I can understand grammatical and spelling mistakes from non-native speakers but the basic orthography is not really too difficult to learn.


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## topaze

I too prefer handwriting
Yes reference to panjandrum's thread it's really appeasing to write with a real pen and real ink,when using to make a diary.
Also receiving love letters from your lover you can admire his/her writing graph that is such different with each personality.
And yes emails are so fast by sending and receiving that one can send a thousand letters in few hours and being very addict to check the email box.
This happened to me with a love relationship .
We write each other plentiful emails every day and I couldn't wait to receive his letters as he was from an other country as me.
One day,by a false manipulation all the inbox with his beautiful love letters was erased definitively  ...If only I had his real letters in hands that I could reread them..
T-


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## TRG

I'm impressed that people still write handwritten letters, as I think it's becoming a lost art. I'm sorry to say this was never one of my strong points and since one cannot correspond less than zero, the internet has not change my letter writing habits at all.


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## roxcyn

janezhang88 said:


> Another profit of email is that we needn't worry about where we keep those old mails,just save them in our computer!


 
Well I used to do that, until my computer crashed and I lost *all* the saved emails.  Now if I want to save the emails I print them out if I really like it. 

Pablo


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## roxcyn

lsp said:


> And if one pays attention, having the spell check and thesaurus so handy can be very educational. Unfortunately it's more often like driving with someone else who knows the route - if you rely on someone else for direction, you can't get to the same place on your own the next time unless you paid attention, but it becomes too easy not to do so.


 
Well, Lsp I use the spell check on the computer if I am not sure of a word or I look in the dictionary.  Really it is not that bad.  Sometimes spell check does not give the right word anyway, you know?  Take care


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## lsp

roxcyn said:


> Well, Lsp I use the spell check on the computer if I am not sure of a word or I look in the dictionary.  Really it is not that bad.  Sometimes spell check does not give the right word anyway, you know?  Take care



I do, too. As I said, it's valuable and convenient. You seem to have understood that I was critical of its use. Perhaps you didn't get my analogy. I'll try another. 

I barely remember anyone's phone number, since I have everyone on speed dial, or in my cell phone's address book. I don't have to _learn_ the numbers. 

It's interesting to wonder if we'll become worse spellers as we increasingly rely on spellcheck.


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## francophone

The internet is quick and easy, also cheaper and less trouble. But I miss the older ways.

And don't get me wrong, but I never forgot one of my pen pals, they sent me cards, nice words, colored paper and I love their handwriting.

On the internet, sometimes it seems worthless, the virtual world makes things seem cheaper, always cheaper and weaker. Physical things are more valuable.


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