E-mail or letter

My  handwriting  is  still  to  the  same  standard  as  when I  was  at  school  ==>  surprised  the  Examiners  could  even  read  my  name,  never  mind  my  answers.

For  this  simple  reason  I  only  hand  write  Letters  &/or  Cards  for  special  reasons  such  as  Great  Thanks,  Commiserations  etc  etc.

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Email and text are useful for quick communications, Facetime is outstanding to talk to my grandchildren who cannot write yet but love chattering.

However a long, newsy, paper letter (typed in my case as my handwriting is atrocious) is great to read time and again and can be very precious to keep for years to come. I still have some from my late wife when we first met, which was before email and text in any case.

Email or text, it's the future 

I use Emails, Texts and Skype to communicate with friends and family.  Using snail mail is a NO NO -- the price of sending a letter is a complete rip off.

K  

I still write letters quite a lot but they are not hand written. I so rarely write with a pen these days that I find it both painful (literally as I have problems with my hands), very slow and the result is barely legible. The only letters I hand write now are sympathy letters or any other letters that require a deeply personal touch.

I don't accept that letters have to be hand written to carry that sense of personal warmth. It is the words that matter not the medium in which they are written; however, I do think snail mail letters somehow have more meaning to them than emails.

My biggest gripe is people who write emails, and especially texts, in some awful shorthand and don't put paragraph breaks (admittedly once not possible in texts), don't write sentences, don't start with Dear .... and don't sign off properly.

I use Emails, Texts and Skype to communicate with friends and family.  Using snail mail is a NO NO -- the price of sending a letter is a complete rip off.

K  

In June 1974 the price of a first class stamp went up to 4.5p. The retail price index was then 16.5. The RPI in December 2015 was 260.6. 4.5p x (260.6/16.5) = 71p. A first class stamp actually costs 63p. That sounds quite cheap to me.

I use Emails, Texts and Skype to communicate with friends and family.  Using snail mail is a NO NO -- the price of sending a letter is a complete rip off.

K  

In June 1974 the price of a first class stamp went up to 4.5p. The retail price index was then 16.5. The RPI in December 2015 was 260.6. 4.5p x (260.6/16.5) = 71p. A first class stamp actually costs 63p. That sounds quite cheap to me.

Write your comments here...What you are failing to understand GDj is, away back in 1974 there was no domestic Electronic communication such as we have this century. Therefore your claim that to write and send a letter today is cheap at 71pence is miss-leading, it is really expensive when compared with Emails Texts and Skype.  Everybody is free to choose their own method of course BUT  IMO  sending mail for the  full  71 pence compared with sending for free is a definite No NO. 

K 

I assume that we are talking about informal letter/comunications to friends and family. Just one point but we have been advised by our legal team, both for Newcastle LEA where I work and in my work as a staff govenor for Sunderland LEA, not to send any 'official' and/or important documents (scanned letter, attached word, excel files) by email. Two main reasons, an address can be traced phsically, proof of address is often needed when applying for jobs, credit.. ) and a postie will deliever to that address or take it back. E mails can be made at will by anyone and ther is no way of knowing that the email address given by pupil Bloggs is actually a real one or will actually reach Mr & Mrs Bloggs. Secondlyfor LEA and staff/govenor use we can only send emails to those recipents who have a 'secure' email account at both ends to stop anyone intercepting it So if my Head teacher wanted to send me (in my capacity of chair of govenors) any document then I have to install encrption software on my home computer. As this is at the schools expense we have decided to go back to post.

As I said this post is about informal letters but just thought I would share this. 

Would those above who like emails - would you be prepared to get important legal documnets (mortage, deeds...) by post or email? A postie might forgive a one character error in your postal address, get one character wrong in your email address....

I actually prefer emails and in reply to Cornersteady i prefer to get all my documents in email format (prefably as a a PDF attachment). When i supply my email address i always double check it and all websites that will be emailing will ask you for it twice to prevent mistakes. 

The reason i prefer it by email is that electronic documents are easier to store and i will never loose them.

I actually prefer emails and in reply to Cornersteady i prefer to get all my documents in email format (prefably as a a PDF attachment). When i supply my email address i always double check it and all websites that will be emailing will ask you for it twice to prevent mistakes. 

The reason i prefer it by email is that electronic documents are easier to store and i will never loose them.

You will never lose an electronic copy of a document?

Wow, that's quite an assumption.