Letterboxes are better than inboxes.

Today we live in a society similar to Big Brother, there are around 4 million CCTV cameras in Britain which view us as many as 300 times a day, we are also in the age of email, instant messaging, text messaging and facebook, all of which can be accessed by people other then the intended recipient. We happily put all of our info and photos on social networking sites; facebook, myspace bebo etc. for any Tom, Dick or Gary Glitter to look at! Some facts for you: 60%of organisations intellectual property is in their email system and a typical user stores half of their critical business info within their emails. So in this Big Brother society how can we keep our private messages private, and our personal information personal? The answer, is handwritten letters. I get a bit excited when I get a handwritten letter through the post, there's just something nice about it. I don't get the same feeling when I check my email inbox and see I have 120 new messages, I know 80-90% of them will be spam or of no interest to me. Now I know we get junk mail in the post but at least we get the satisfaction of screwing it up and throwing it straight in the bin (the recycling one, of course.) There's something special about receiving a handwritten letter, you know the sender has taken their time over it and that its for your eyes only. You can actually hold it in your hands, just as they would have done before they sent it to you. It's real, not a virtual thing, and it's written in proper english, not text or email talk where everything is shortened to save time so you can hit that send button. You can save the letters away in a drawer or box but that drawer or box is personal and only you know the letters are there. I found a nice quote: "letters tell the stories that become our history" I think that everyone should try writing letters, so that they have something private and personal and real, but also so our history that we are leaving behind can be seen, read and felt.

Go write a letter now. I'm going to. Do it!