My start in news reporting was with a manual typewriter. I loved banging out a story on deadline - literally feeling my way around a story.
Just look around, can you find a typewriter at home, let alone work?
I know the high school had one that was used for individual checks and certificates from time to time.
Like many other important tools no longer needed (buggy-whip, anyone?); these communication tools are making a come-back as an object of art or old-time tool.
You could go back further than a typewriter - back to a piece of paper and pen - to the beginning when you first sent thank you notes after Christmas or birthdays.
On cold and snowy winter days, a great thrill is finding a personal letter in the mailbox and reading it in a comfortable chair with a nice hot cup of cocoa.
A personal card or letter is extra special these days because they are rare. It's easier to write an email or send and electronic card for someone's birthday or anniversary.
Of course, even email seems to be running its course as texting, tweeting, direct messaging, and other fast and furious ways to talk via social media take over the 24/7 world where we live.
Do you remember having a box of stationary? A small box with a clear plastic lid with smaller sheets of heavy paper that matched the envelopes also inside the box. It was a perfect gift that grandparents might give to their grandchildren in hopes of encouraging some letter-writing.
Back in college, I wrote letters home weekly (or close to it) and also sent letters frequently to a special friend who wasn't attending the same school. Then I would check my resident hall mailbox each day hoping to see a hand-written envelope inside.
It seems to me that in the very early 1990s, email was wide-spread and the phrase, "You've got mail," meant that your AOL mailbox just received something with your name on it. It was before spam, phishing, and auto generated email marketing.
Email meant communicating quickly - sometimes almost instantly - and for many of my generation is still the preferred way to set up appointments or commit something to memory with a request to, "just shoot me an email."
Email wasn't very portable a the time which led to texting from one cell phone to another in a small amount of space with it's own phrases to convey laughter (LOL) or amazement (OMG) without writing things out. It's enough to make one ROTFL!
Tweets are 140 characters - suggesting we be more succinct in our messages - that can be directed to one person or shared with the world. Even in the first case, it might be shared with the world.
Thinking back on it, hand-written letters and notes can be shared too. I learned years later than notes I agonized over back in middle school and sent via the various classroom backchannels were read aloud in the girl's locker room. (It's good I only learned of that much later, if I knew that then who knows what depth of embarassment I might have reached.)
Radio hosts used to ask their audiences to "keep those cards and letters coming," then it was faxes (mostly business now), emails, tweets, direct messages, etc.
It might be a fun idea to go a bit retro and sit down with a pen and paper - and write a letter to a long time friend or special relative. They will love it and you will be glad you did.
Comments
Post a Comment