From The Wall Street Journal:
Yes
After myriad texts and phone calls, photos, videos and voice memos shared between me and my partner who’s isolating a few states away, one morning I was inspired to scribble out and mail her a schmaltzy, three-page note detailing a version of how I wished our spring might have gone.
A few days later, she surprised me with a video. It showed her kneeling at a footlocker overflowing with old letters her parents wrote to one another as teens while her father was away at basic training. She thumbed through each, sending me photos of her favorites as she reminisced about their first days and years together and chuckled at the earnest words and looping penmanship.
Now imagine what your own kids will be able to access to tell your story some day. Will you save your smartphone? Will you want them to see everything on there? What happens if you lose the charger?
There’s something about holding the same piece of paper your partner once held—about the thought that went into it, the time it took to write, the literal and figurative impressions that were left, smeared ink, familiar doodles and mistakes, and the long journey it took to arrive. All this makes the sentiments the receiver unfolds a bit more meaningful.
. . . .
No
There was a time when sending a text was burdened by the fear your parents would howl at the cell bill that reflected all the 10-cent charges each chime had tacked on. At that rate today, a nightly conversation with my partner might soar past $20—not to mention the ransom Verizon would demand to let me ship her trivial photos captured during my afternoon walk.
But as data costs plummeted and finger speeds increased, texts became the primary way couples communicate: offloading gripes; sending reminders and shopping lists; sharing links, personal news and daily missives letting a partner know he or she is on your mind. All in a private language exclusive to the two of you.
“Letters are good for emotions that don’t erode, but it’s ephemera that builds a life,” said Michael Stewart, a senior lecturer teaching digital communications at Brown University. “It’s not all a grandiose statement. The mundane, the day-to-day, that’s where love is found.”
Yet this quick and casual medium still allows for detailed and desirous words of longing, romantic hopes, nostalgic notes or late-night whims. Such texts can be easily edited, immediately sent and guaranteed to be there when the recipient wakes up. Plus: no need for stamps.
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal (PG apologizes for the paywall, but hasn’t figured out a way around it.)