Their entire species is being threatened. With each passing day, their numbers dwindle. Yet few seem to notice–and even fewer care.
I'm not talking about a spotted three horned owl. Rather, it's something much more mundane. So ordinary its passing is off the radar screen of general concern.
Letters. Old fashioned, hand-written letters are a species in deep decline. And in case you're wondering, that's not just a sentimental feeling. Ask the United States Post Office, where decline in letter volume (ie. revenue) is creating a major case of mail box blues.
No secret as to why. Email and texting and inexpensive cell phones have all but taken over. Why wait three days for your message to get delivered when you can send it in three seconds?
Nobody's a bigger fan of email or texting than me–for whom these are almost an addiction. Yet….I worry what they're doing to old fashioned romance.
Today's couples text and email almost exclusively. Meaning…twenty or thirty years from now, there'll be very few love letters to open up and re-read. Few cards to linger over.
Sure you can archive digital communication, but honestly–who bothers? Besides, where's the romantic buzz from printing out a sanitized looking message on white paper?
The analogue feel of card stock, or crinkled paper and good ol' ink is a sensory experience for which there is no digital equivalent.
So how will emerging generations satisfy their appetite for reliving their romance? Stare at images of antique phone screens? Or is nostalgia itself soon to be extinguished…or morphed into a cold digital formula?
It all just makes me increasingly grateful that when God decided to send us His ultimate love letter, He didn't send us a text or email us an attachment with cute little animated graphics. Instead, He wrote us a Book. High tech is efficient. But high touch it is not.