Opinion

Where Have Letters Gone?

By DAVID ZOPPETTI

I just love the thrill of finding letters waiting for me in my mailbox. I enjoy weighing envelopes of different shapes and sizes on the palm of my hand and marvel at the sight of colorful stamps and foreign addresses. And there is always the refreshment provided by an occasional exotic postcard.

But recently, checking my mail has become a frustrating experience. I'm not receiving any letters anymore, just heaps of unwanted publicity that ranges from pizza or sushi delivery ads to unwanted porn leaflets.

So I wonder. Have I lost all of my friends? Are people not writing to me anymore? The answer is, not exactly. People are still writing, but in a different way. It is simply that the tactile and visual pleasure of receiving letters has been replaced by the "You've Got Mail" syndrome.

Yes, e-mail is revolutionizing communication. It is cheap, fast and practical. You can send out messages at any time, you don't have to walk to the post office with stacks of letters, and replies come back at lightning speed. The cyberworld has brought us closer together and seems to have reduced the size of the planet to that of a golf ball.

Projects involving e-mail and the Internet as an educational tool are booming worldwide. Chat sites, where people can make friends easily and converse with them in "real time" from the coziness of their own room are more and more popular. You can shop on the Internet, invest in the stock market, order theater or opera tickets, and do a myriad of other things — enough to boggle the imagination.

But this magic tool has its negative sides as well. Put in the wrong hands, it can turn into a Pandora's box of unexpected problems. Cybercrimes are increasing at the same speed as the popularity of the medium. They go from the simple, unwanted nuisance e-mail, to stalkers, sexual harassers and con artists, but also include all kinds of mischievous fraud schemes.

But my biggest concern is that this new "virtual world" might gradually be alienating us from the real one we live in.

The time students spend in front of their screens is that much less time spent discovering nature and the outside world. The hours spent chit-chatting with e-mail friends is that much less time spent meeting people and learning how to relate with them. And I'm probably just a nostalgic fool but I can't help seeing the disappearance of letters from our everyday life as a symbol of this gradual drifting from real things.

Of course, I know the trend is not about to stop. I am just as addicted to it as the next man down the street (I often check my e-mail even before having breakfast!). I just hope that the sensations of convenience, immediacy and thrill provided by this new gadget won't estrange us totally from contact and communication in the real world.

Shukan ST: Nov. 19, 1999

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