Personal Correspondence

How do you keep in touch with others? Through social media, e-mail, phone calls, texts, visits?

Most of us today keep in touch through social media such as Facebook, and text messaging on our mobile phones. Its much faster than a hand written letter and in our fast paced way of life we don't make the time to do so. E-mail is the same way it seems. It's much easier for us to keep up with each other through a website and text than to take the time to write an email. I have actually been able to keep in touch with family members I wouldn't even really know if it were not for Facebook. That has really been a blessing!

I remember when we first got a computer. I was 13. AOL was the big thing then. I remember thinking how neat it was to instant message someone or send them an e-mail. I made a 'pen pal' on there. Of course, we have since lost touch. But, it was cool to be able to correspond with others without having to write a letter and wait for them to receive it in the mail; or if you wanted to talk for hours you didn't have to worry about your ear going numb or your arm tiring from holding the phone so long.

In recent years, e-mail seems to have nearly faded out as a source of keeping in touch with others on a personal level. Especially with the advent of text messaging on cell phones and numerous social networking sites.

I personally, wish that wasn't the case. I rarely check my email anymore because there is nothing to look forward to other than a bunch of forwards. I get actual emails on the occasion from a few people. I check email to make sure a payment went through or something of that sort, but even then I can do that from my phone. Don't get me wrong, I love having email at my finger tips when I am on the go and being able to respond quickly via a text, but it still is not as personal as an e-mail or even more so, a hand written letter.

When I moved to Murfreesboro, TN for school I of course kept in touch with family through phone calls, but some of us also e-mailed & Instant Messaged. Then, I wrote letters back and forth to my Great Aunt, Great Uncle, and one of my cousins. Writing those letters was a lot of fun and really meant a lot to me. I can remember always looking forward to checking my mailbox in the KUC to see if I had letters or packages. :) I still have a letter from each of them today that I kept, and I will keep them for many years to come.

Even though we live in such a fast paced world, we always need to make time to keep in touch with those that mean a lot to us. Family, friends, it doesn't matter who they are, and even though I miss email being popular it doesn't matter how you keep in touch as long as you do!