Letters Are a Thing from the Past When was the last time you wrote a hand written letter? Probably, “not recent.” When was the last time you sent an e-mail? You’re thinking, “I’ve sent a couple just today.” Smart phones, laptops, and tablets are taking over the world. Texting is the number one way of communication these days. The advancement of technology is the reason why hand-written letters are a thing from the past. Technology is the main reason why hand written letters are getting lower and lower in quantity. There are a total of 144.8 billion e-mails sent every day! There was only a total of 160 billion sent in the whole year in 2012. Who knows what it’s going to be in 2013. Ever since 2006, the total number of mail volume has gone significantly. From 2006 to 2012, it has decreased a total of 53.1 billion. That is a lot of mail. From 2006 to 2012, the mail volume kept decreasing. Every year, it decreased by at least three billion and at one point, it decreased by ten billion. I know that the economy went into the hole, but I didn’t know that a computer costs cheaper than sending a letter. The Post Office says that an average American home will receive one hand written personal letter every two months. I have never gotten a personal letter in my lifetime. What is considered a personal letter? A personal letter is a form of communication between two people who have a purpose to tell the other person about their life; the highlights of their month or week. Letters can either be hand written or typed. Liza Grotts’ says, "The look and feel of a handwritten note is incomparable and deeply personal. Compared to e-mail, e-vites, and everything else electronic, paper stands the test of time." That’s very true. But couldn’t you... ... middle of paper ... ...calendar, or a watch. I remember watching little kid shows and seeing people talk on their watches and wishing that I could do that. Finally after years of cartoons and movies acting you actually could, now you really can! That just sets up for other companies to make a whole variety of things. I understand we all have different views on things, we have been raised different than others, and we all have come from different backgrounds. One thing we should all understand is that writing letters is a thing from the past. Hardly anyone does it anymore, and it is a lost art. E-mails, texting, facebook, and twitter are all of the new things. Stuff has come through and left all in our generation. Writing just stayed around a lot longer than usual. The next new thing will be a hologram wrist band with apps to play and everything. Watch how you evolve around the change.
The meaning behind handwriting and letters is by far much deeper. It takes a few effortless seconds to glide ones fingers across a screen and send a text. The effort put into a text does not compare to the time thought out in physical form. You have the power to alter peoples judgement.
The amount of letters commissioned in America has been steadily decreasing on a daily basis. The majority of citizens are now sending their letters via e-mail or other methods of technology. Postal service companies such as USPS are struggling to keep business thriving. To compete with the technological advances in modern America, USPS should restructure their postal systems by terminating unessential delivery days and strategically limiting postal branches in order to conserve government money.
To ensure that formal written language is preserved, a clear distinction must be made between formal writing and texting. Students -as well as adults- must also be given sufficient practice in both areas if they are to clearly communicate their thoughts to others through either means. As quoted from Nicole Wood and Becky Wang in their presentation “Is Texting Killing the English Language”, “the most common misuses by students are ... using only the letter ‘u’ … [and] using the letter ‘r’...” These errors in formal essays are often -and in most cases- caused by confusion of the distinction between texting and formal writing, leading to an overlap between the two. The value of formal written language is its ability to clearly and distinctly communicate one’s ideas to another -and because of its overall consistency regardless of time- even those in the future. Texting, in some cases however, loses this ability to clearly communicate thoughts and ideas, and exclusively texting at home could lead to a decline in one’s ability to clearly communicate with others through writing.
This Generation lives in the world of comfort, a world that always provides faster, lighter, bigger and better things to make one’s life comfortable. With the great inventions in our hands more people have started to use electronic messages actively. As the manufacture, science, and techonology developement shoot up to the sky, the United States postal Service (USPS) watched people forgetting how to write “real” letter (Doc F). While the world transform with new generation and definition of “real” USPS gling onto the history and bases.
Technology is not killing our ability to write, but it is reviving it and pushing our literacy to new directions. Andrea Lunsford, from Stanford University, conducted an experiment to scrutinize college students way of writing. Her results were alarming, "I think we are in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization." Lunsford discovered that only 38% of students writing occurred within the classroom, the rest was written in their own free time. Most of our socializing now takes place online and always involves text or writing. Before the Internet, most of our communication was verbal. The only time Americans wrote was for a school assignment and if their job required writing. Otherwise most people didn't write another paragraph once they left
Handwriting is a means of expressing language, just like speech. However, handwriting is not taught in school as much as in previous years. In the past, handwriting was taught as a precursor to reading and spelling. Today, students of all ages are rigorously tested on their writing skills, yet they are not allowed the time it takes to develop this skill. I remember writing in a Big Chief notebook, holding a chubby pencil, trying my best to make the curves and lines of the letters just right. When I attended elementary school, the teacher devoted at least forty-five minutes to handwriting each day. Handwriting should still be taught in school because it is an essential first step to reading and expressing one’s thoughts and feelings and because of its impact on higher education.
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
With technology on the rise students will be spending more time typing, and less time actually writing. Rafael Guerrero states in his article “Are We Seeing the Death of Cursive?” that “[I]n the minds of some, the need for teachers to spend more time getting students to meet state standards and master computer technology has made cursive less relevant.” A large concern for teachers today is to get students to the point of being able to satisfy state standards rather than teaching them material which will benefit them in the future. Teaching third graders how to write in cursive has been one of the main lessons taught for years. Just because the technology is on the rise it should not mean that children do not get the same education generations before have received. Depriving children of this knowledge would be unfair. Students need this writing skill in order to read historical documents from the past. Students will also need to know it when they take the PSAT and SAT in high school for the written statement. Teaching young children how to write in a whole new form of writing is a daunting task, but it is a necessity for them to be able to develop properly and succeed in
Technology has utterly slaughtered the love letter. Most people will not take the time to sit down and write a veritable letter, in fact most people do not even use their own words. The love letter was the only way to connect with love ones or potential lovers. When texting came along words like love would be abbreviated and mo...
For centuries, cursive handwriting has been considered an art. However, to a increasing number of young people the form is becoming extinct. The graceful letters of the cursive alphabet have been transcribed on innumerable love letters, acted as the method for articulating thoughts in journals and diaries, and have been scrawled across elementary school chalkboards for generations. Yet, cursive is gradually vanishing due to the accessibility to keyboards and smartphones. While the loss of the cursive alphabet may appear inconsequential, recent studies have revealed that in fact the gradual death of the fancier ABC’s instigates concerns for future generations.
Personal letters are more likely to be viewed as genuine and not from a template.
With the swarm of technology, handwriting, a vital skill, may be on the brink of extinction, despite that it is able to create a “model citizen, assimilate immigrants, and even reform juvenile delinquents” (Korper). Believe it or not: handwriting is important. However, the debate about handwriting is still questionable. Handwriting allows for effective memory retention and is an significant and unique action to develop certain regions of your brain (Grossberg). However, handwriting is also outdated and lacks the agility of the keyboard (Korper). Nonetheless, some of these positive aspects of handwriting are largely due to the ‘drill’ factor emphasized in the Palmer Method of handwriting used present day (Korper).
People are able to send messages to their best friends or family members in other states across the country in, almost, the same minute that it was sent. This makes communicating and getting information to each other faster and easier. Phones and computers alike, can send emails, which have almost entirely replaced the physical letter due the speed and convenience. Emails are free to send and can be sent and received in under a minute which makes it easy and quick for people to communicate and express their ideas. This mailing technology would have been very helpful to Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. Jackson was stationed in New Orleans during the war and was supposed to defend the city. During his time, the war had officially ended, but the news of the treaty with Brittan had not reached him or the British. He was forced to defend the city through a battle and although he won with very few casualties, if the mail had reached them sooner both sides would have suffered fewer
Communication has changed so much over time. Everyone has cell phones or smartphones. It cut out letter writing, everyone barely even uses paper. Cell phones have been helpful for making it easier to get in touch people. Also, it is faster than writing a letter. Another thing is wifi. Everyone uses it, and I do not think that I or anyone else could live without it.
Throughout the years, technology has had a major effect on the way people communicate within the office. It has made sending out memos and letters, and collaborating with groups, much easier and more efficient. The use of email all began in the 1980’s. Before that time, it was common for memos and letters to be hand written or printed out and