Penpals

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Long before Facebook, there used to be a special and infinitely more personal way of experiencing the joys of friendship. It wasn't a world where we simply clicked, added, and confirmed someone as a friend. We didn't have sneaky programs browsing our address books to "suggest" friends. We sought them out. 

We struck lifelong friendships, all by writing flowing letters to people we'd never seen or met. Such friends, in distant lands, were called penpals. The process of penfriendship was long, arduous, but beautiful. It required pouring out one's thoughts and feelings on paper without the benefit of the backspace key or the spell checker. These hand-written letters would then have to be stamped and mailed at a post office. And then began the wait and the sweet anticipation of receiving a reply from one's penpal. Times have changed. In a matter of minutes we can now scan a Facebook friend's timeline and know the good, the bad, the ugly of their entire life. Gone is the mystery. Gone is the surprise. The thrill of receiving a physical letter is so much more than any email or text message. It was the purest form of one-to-one communication because there were no cc's or bcc's. 

Our lives didn't revolve around the Like button back then. We didn't measure our social standing by some published friend count. We communicated but didn't feel the pressing need to "check-in" all the time. I miss not getting those letters, and those ocassional 4x6 glossy photos. Technology has speeded up social interactions but it has sucked the soul out of the true spirit of friendship.

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