Its video streams, instant messaging and email all to keep in touch with people, but for many older generations, keeping in touch meant writing a letter.
One local historian would like to see the world revert back to this simpler art form.
Katrin Beck with the Baker Mansion History Museum explains.
“Letter writing has become a very lost art. Today’s date we have technology, we have so many different platforms that we can talk to each other. However, in history before all of that,
people wrote letters to each other.”
“My mother still has the letters that my grandmother and my grandfather wrote during World War two. My mother still has the letters that her and my father wrote when he was stationed
in South Korea, and there was a lot of history and both my grandparents and my parents letters to each other and a lot of the history know of different families and different events
comes from letters that were written to each other before all the platforms. We have”
“The summer 28th, 1880. Dear sir. So I would really like to see that come back because right now we are living history.
We are living in a time of not just the pandemic. We are living in a time of different events going on in the world and as families and young children are growing up.
Your grandchildren and great grandchildren are going to be studying these events, and what is being documented right now is what is in the newspapers.”
“But what is that going to be in 50 years from now, 100 years from now? If you can journal or write letters to each other, then you can document what how it has affected you personally.”
“Letter writing has a psychological benefits also. So writing letters to each other has been shown psychologically and scientifically to improve writing skills cognitive skills. It also improves communication skills. But to receive a card that has more than just, you know, just the card itself and your friend or the person’s name.”
“But to have a letter written in there improves a lot of people out of a depression. It can bring joy. So the recipient of that letter is acknowledging that that is personal.”
“That is something that you took the time to do just for that and that gift is something that they can keep.”
“And then when you receive a letter from someone, I do encourage you as the recipient to acknowledge the fact that that person and took that precious time to sit down and write you and
acknowledge that and appreciate that.”
“Pick up a pen and paper and write a letter to your friends, your family or even people you don’t know. Maybe to a soldier, someone that would benefit because it’s not just giving to
others, but it’s also helping yourself.”
“And it’s part of self-care and self-care is so important.”
