From TNPC issue #4.24...

No Electronic Christmas Cards, Please - Ruminations on the Written Word in Our Digital World

by Dan Butler
November 29, 2001

Recently I was discussing the differences in digital documents and handwritten documents with another gentleman online (hi Bob!). Here is what I discussed with him. With Holiday cards in the making, you too may find these thoughts timely.

On my desk are many scraps of paper. Some are written in red, some blue, some black, some pencil. Some are printed documents that I've scribbled a note on. A few are documents someone else has handwritten to me and I have jotted a note on. With all those varied documents I can still distinguish one from the other and find exactly the one I'm after. With computer printed documents they are all the same.

My old dog-eared address book has lined out items and penciled in updates. I see the old addresses for people and it brings back memories of when I visited them at the old address and other things. It's a time line of my life.

Think of the love letters some save and revisit year after year. There is a look, a smell, a touch that is unique to each one. They take the owner back in the same way a high school yearbook does. What would this experience be like if each of those documents were printed from a computer?

Even a typewritten letter was signed with a certain pen, on a certain stationary, chosen by the sender. A special stamp they liked. All that is lost today. What is the value of a personally written, carefully worded note today? What will it be in 10 years? 20 years?

These are things I ponder and these thoughts I endeavor to pass on to my children. So as you compose notes this season make the extra effort to create something cherished enough to be revisited by the receiver of your gift.

You can reach Dan Butler at:
mailto:danbutler@TheNakedPC.com

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