On Receiving Letters

In my beginners guide to writing snail mail, I hand out a few tips for getting started with letter writing as a lovely way of conversing with friends and strangers. I’ve sent 21 letters since then, but the fun doesn’t stop there: receiving a reply is just as exciting. Many people dismiss letter writing as a thing of the past—an activity one engaged in when one still had the time to sit down and write. The more society sped up, the less letters are being written: just send a quick email instead. Or wait, no need to even open up your emailclient: just send a quick instant message using your favourite messaging platform instead. But as we turn towards digitised tools to communicate, we also implicitly accept the standardisation that comes with it: the symbols being translated into ones and zeroes can be styled using your client’s font preferences, and sometimes we receive attaches, but that’s about it. When you send or receive a letter, you send or receive a filled canvas. That work of…

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