Going postal

[ewx]

[Poll #950971]

Emails don't count, I mean letters on paper. Letters to organizations don't count either - I mean letters to people like friends and relatives.

Comments

[k425.livejournal.com]

I'd write more often if I could pull my finger out and actually do it. As it is, I write to everyone at Christmas and say I'll try harder next year and forget again.

[tea-cantata.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd write more often if I were simply a little more organised. Particularly I should write to my sister (entirely non-geeky and *hopeless* at checking her email) and to my gran (who refuses to get on the internet as she claims she is far too old to learn a new thing). Lala.

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

I'd write more often if I wasn't so lazy. Proper letters are Great!

[imc.livejournal.com]

[x] I honestly can't remember.

Of course I don't keep copies of handwritten letters, but the last printed-out letter to a real person appears to have been about 6.5 years ago.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Didn't you write to the US Immigration people some time more recently than that?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure they would constitute an organization.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Well, the reason he needed to write to them in the first place suggests that they are far from organized! I think it was one specific person there rather than the organization generally, but ok, see what you're saying, etc.

He's certainly never written to me. *humph*

[imc.livejournal.com]

I think it was one specific person there rather than the organization generally

Nope. (And I didn't count "the Bursar of Queen's College" either, even though that is an individual; or the note to an eBay seller included with my cheque for that matter.)

He's certainly never written to me. *humph*

Heh. Well I have written cards, and even sometimes emails…

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I'd write more if it weren't for LJ.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

You forgot "I'd write less if: I had fewer correspondents still living in the twentieth century." ;^b

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

what is the etiquette for writing to people in the past? Should I avoid mention of any deceased mutual friends or relatives, be truthful but only when asked explicitly, or should I just flat out lie for my own amusement?

Currently everyone I write to who lives in the seventies believes the Falklands war escalated into a global conflict, and that we struggle to rebuilt civilisation in the countryside while gangs of mutants fight amid the ruined cities.

[grendelyn.livejournal.com]

I pretty much only write Thank You notes. Or to my grandparents, but they're easier to call.

[mtbc100.livejournal.com]

I'll write more often once I have my desk at home actually assembled. But only to people who are e-mail-less or who much want paper over e-mail.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Do post cards or birthday cards count?

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Postcards are in a different category in my head and I think the publicness does make them more objectively different. There are things I'd say in a letter or email that I'd not say in a postcard and I suspect this is true of most people.

A birthday card wouldn't automatically count but if you're writing more than just good wishes in it then I think it would.

[lnr]

Do notes and cards count?

I don't think I've written a proper letter to anyone since I was an undergrad.

[lnr]

Oooh, no, that's wrong, I distinctly remember writing to ernie while we were going out.

[rmc28]

I wrote a letter in the last week, and I have at least 2 more on my to-do list, but mostly I don't write letters very often.

You missed out "if I had more time" and "if it wasn't easier to phone most people".

I think phones, not email, are why I write few letters. Email within my family is more a case of sharing complex details or quick notes that are either too big or too trivial for telephone.

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I have a proper penpal and two friends whom I only ever contact by means of writing (old teachers from school, hence my not calling them penpals - it just wouldn't seem right). I used to write to my proper penpal much more often, but now I write to all of them approximately four times a year (Christmas, Easter, beginning of summer, end of summer). I also have another ex-teacher friend (well, he still teaches, just not me) whom I contact by email, and in practice I probably send him six-ish emails a year, so eally he's not doing much better. I think the key to how often I write lies in the time I can be bothered spending on these things, and though I ticked the email causation box, I think that has much less to do with it than the time factor.

I admit, though, that I have more trouble writing anything by hand (except notes and lists) now that I use a computer so much. Writing seems slow and my brain has started to assemble words based on a qwerty keyboard.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

I should have written two thank you letters for Christmas presents, but haven't got around to it yet.

I would write more letters if it didn't require me to have both envelopes and stamps. Envelopes I usually have, but sometimes don't, and stamps I almost never have and only seem to be able to get from places that aren't open when I'm not either awake or at work...

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

That should read,

"...when I'm not either asleep or at work..."

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

I write to my gran, who I love to bits but who doesn't grok email. I'd write more if I had more people I loved to bits who didn't grok email; I like writing letters, they make you think a lot more and put more effort in than dashing off emails does :)