I love emails, sending and receiving them. In today’s world of social timelines where you shout into a void and expect an echo back, the medium of email feels a lot more personal. Drafting a long email to a friend today reminded me of the time when I wrote letters to my family, a few pages long. When we carefully selected and penned the words to convey the emotions we were living through. Physical letters were replaced by their digital form, the email, but the manner we communicated didn’t change.
With email, there’s no urgency, no pressure of read receipts and associated expectations for response. And when the response does arrive, there’s a feeling of connectedness. Instant messages, those words we spurt in burst, don’t exude that sense of affinity. A well-thought email does; it makes you mindful of the fact that someone cares.
One is a letter, another is messaging. It’s unfortunate that we have forgotten how to draft the former. I wish I knew more people who shared my liking for this medium.