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From: shiue@h-sc1.UUCP (steve shiue)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: The "Reality" of Electronic Communication: Another voice
Message-ID: <785@h-sc1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Nov-85 07:11:06 EST
Article-I.D.: h-sc1.785
Posted: Wed Nov 27 07:11:06 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 21:46:07 EST
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Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
Lines: 45

> > I cannot understand why a touch typist would write a letter in
> > longhand.  Surely typed letters are easier to read and quicker
> > to write.
> 
> > Marnix van Ammers
> 
While it is true that in most cases, typed mail is easier to read, 
there is a personal quality that is very pleasing about handwritten letters from
friends, girlfriends, etc.  Hard to get perfume onto an e-mail posting.  Can't
any of you people appreciate such a thing?  Two things are true:  1) I would
certainly prefer to get e-mail or a line printer printout, holes and
everything, than no mail at all, and 2)  When there are a lot of really
important things to set down that might be lost or forgotten (or simply take
up too much room to mail conveniently), it is perhaps better to type the
letter.  However, I prefer to receive and send handwritten mail, on quality
stationery if possible, on all other occasions.

> I write my leters longhand because I find the physical act of
> putting words down on paper an excellent filter. I tend not engage
> in page after page of meaningless drivel, and concentrate more on
> things that are important to me. If no one else wants to take the
> time to write longhand, that's fine, too. I would rather receive
> email than no mail.
> 
> In my experience, the content of email tends to be 
> rather trivial, while the hand-written mail that 
> I receive from friends tends to be both more
> interesting and more robust in terms of content. 
> 
> Andy Cohill
> {allegra|ihnp4}houxm!whuxl!whuts!amc
> 				

	I am in definite agreement with Andy on this point.  Churning out text
at a CRT at sixty words a minute and sending it out immediately seems to
encourage a facile, colloquial style of "writing" that is no style at all.  At
its worst, the e-mail/netnews problem manifests itself when people don't
bother to spell, punctuate, capitalize - the worst thing is that many
netnewsers don't seem to proofread their material even once before sending it
out - they must be occuppied with too many IMPORTANT things.

			-Steve Shiue

"Short hair is the clean-cut, All-American look."
	-Eugene, "The Decline of Western Civilization"