

My Teenage Son Does Not Know How To Mail A Letter - Brajeshwar
http://readwrite.com/2013/05/27/my-teenage-son-does-not-know-how-to-mail-a-letter

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monsterix
Well, let's face it for real and realise that this is a good thing. Physical
letters dying is a good thing for us. We don't need to consume more paper for
interpersonal communication.

Let me plug (shamelessly) an online letter-writing service that my friends and
I have created:

It's called bubbles: <https://bubbleideas.com>

We bring true letter-writing experience on the web. It's basically email with
doodles, handwriting, ordinary paper like behavior etc. 100% online, supported
on iPad/Wacom Pentab and the desktop... :)

While certainly one can't get the smell and fibrous touch of physical paper,
but we do go as far as possible to bring letter-like expressions - visual,
format-wise and emotional connect on our service.

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AndrewKemendo
Yet another high cost social signal that people woe over the loss of.

Kramer had it right. Good riddance.

~~~
sonicaa
> Good riddance.

Probably from cost perspective, but from emotional connect point of view it
certainly is a loss[1][2].

[1]
[http://www.ted.com/talks/hannah_brencher_love_letters_to_str...](http://www.ted.com/talks/hannah_brencher_love_letters_to_strangers.html)

[2]
[http://www.ted.com/talks/lakshmi_pratury_on_letter_writing.h...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lakshmi_pratury_on_letter_writing.html)

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moakakala
He probably also doesn't know how to use a sliderule or churn butter.

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stevesearer
It wouldn't be very surprising if the vast majority of teens who do not know
how to write a letter have parents who do not write letters themselves.

That said, it seems surprising to me that the topic of 'where does the mail
come from and how does it get to where it is going' would have come up at
least once in 18 years of childhood given that mail shows up at homes every
day.

When I was teaching middle school several years ago, my 6th grade students
didn't know about long distance phone calls. I took it upon myself to give a
basic explanation about phone calls, switchboards, and even things like
10-10-321.

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zachlatta
Teen here. I don't see how this is considered a bad thing. I've never needed
to mail a physical letter before. We're experiencing a shift of paradigms.
Physical communication is dying.

~~~
DanBC
It's just one of those "Oh God I'm getting old" moments.

When you realise that the person you're talking too wasn't born when Star Wars
was released - well, ok. But then you find out they were born after "Little
Mermaid". There's that xkcd about "Little Mermaid" being closer to man being
on the moon than to today.

You know they don't know what a shared party line is. (I lived in a village.
There was one phone line, shared between several houses. They used phased
switching to make the correct phones ring. When you picked up the handset you
either got a dial tone or you got someone else's conversation.) Okay, that's
ancient, they don't know it. But then you realise that they don't know what an
acoustic coupler is, and they've never dialed a number but punched it in on
buttons. And then they were born around the time I got my fourth cell phone
(Motorola StarTac).

You know they don't know what Compuserve is. Or what AOHell is. Or why
InternetTV and midi signatures make some grown men cry. But then you realise
that they've probably never used a real smtp client, only webmail. Yahoo! has
never been big in their lifetime - they can't remember when buying yahoo
stocks was the punchline in a timetravel movie.

I was raging today because I found out that Intel has some network drivers
that are 2 GB. But I remember the time when a mouse driver was 10 MB and I
thought that was too much.

~~~
qu4z-2
2GB? Seriously? Wow. Maybe I'm old, but I still feel like 10MB is too much for
a mouse driver...

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peapicker
Parent fail, assuming the kid was given gifts. Never wrote a thank-you note
and mailed it?

~~~
mgkimsal
I've given two very small gifts to kids (a 3 year old and a 12 year old) -
both sent me hand-written thank you letters in the mail. I was _shocked_. I
guess I was also shocked that the 3 year old had her own stationary. :)

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DanBC
I don't mind the loss of letters so much.

I'm kind of worried that we don't properly archive and release emails.

What happens to my email if I die? What happens to the email of
FAMOUS_SCIENTIST if she dies?

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ireadqrcodes
I am 30 and I've sent my last hand written letter 15 years ago.

~~~
EliRivers
I'm in my mid-thirties and I sent my last handwritten letter last week.

I write on Crown Mill writing paper, which has a great feel against the
fingertips, using a mid-range Cross fountain pen. People often express their
appreciation at receiving a handwritten letter on quality paper, written in a
smooth, flowing ink and cursive handwriting. It gets remembered.

~~~
sonicaa
Kinda same here. My own handwriting is my favorite font.

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foobar510
My Teenage Son Does Not Know How To Shoe A Horse

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armenarmen
23 y/o I usually have to google how to send a letter and fill out a check.

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dale386
"My lazy father never taught me how to mail a letter."

