My favorite part of every birthday and special occasion is the cards. The length is insignificant to me; it already warms my heart just knowing that someone spent a good portion of their time on me. I’ve received letters with such great detail, and I couldn’t imagine how much time it took for the person to write them. To write coherent and sweet messages while making it look aesthetically pleasing and delivering the message in time is difficult. A lot of effort, planning, and time must be put into writing these cards.

In 2025, however, sending messages is the easiest it has ever been; it takes only a few minutes to write a seemingly heartfelt text message to someone. With such little time, you can say so much to someone, but is it as meaningful as it should be? 

Although text messaging might be efficient, the true value of a message is held in the effort and craft of it: the carefully cut-out shapes, unique handwriting, and more elements personalized by the creator. With letter writing, you can personally design the message to encapsulate the true depth of your thoughts in unlimited ways; text messaging, on the other hand, is limited to just wording. Text messaging doesn’t allow you to incorporate artistic elements, restricting messages to bland text bubbles and minimal animations.

Letter writing was an essential form of communication earlier in time. It was used for simple contact and was also an important way to communicate during wars. Although there were aspects to love letters and meaningful letters, the main purpose of letter writing in the past was to communicate from long distances. As technology has advanced, letter writing has become less efficient and wasteful; what is the point of spending so much time, paper, and ink to get a message across the world when my phone can do it in a matter of seconds? With this, the meaningful part of letter writing has died along with it. 

However, more recently, the art of letter writing has started to make a comeback. There has been more recognition of the love held in letters, and many have started to revert back to making cards for their loved ones. Compared to text messaging, Tashfia Khan ’27 from DeWitt Clinton High School said, “They take more time and effort, which makes them more meaningful. I’d definitely choose them over digital messages.” 

Letters in History

People all around the world have used letters, but the ancient historian Hellanicus recorded the first handwritten letter from approximately 500 B.C.E, written by the Persian Queen Atossa. This letter is known to be the most important letter in history according to history and humanities Professor Bríd McGrath, of Trinity College, Dublin. Although the contents of the letter or purpose were never found, it serves as a significant part of history as it marks the start of handwritten letters.  

Communication was vital around this time, and as more people became literate—whether it was because of Queen Atossa showcasing her literacy with her first letter, or the growing access to education—the ways of communication grew, including through writing letters. 

Later on, people in ancient India, Egypt, and other places used letters as a means of communication. The main purpose of writing letters was to share information, important news, or simple communication with other leaders. Letter writing later evolved to become a way for people to practice their skills in writing and reading, have an outlet for self-expression, and display their artistic talents. 

Since letter writing has become a way to express one’s emotions and thoughts, letters between friends and loved ones create opportunities to form better relationships but they also serve us in great detail from certain time periods. With letter analyzing, we learn how letters have helped individuals during difficult times.

The Westward Expansion was a time after the establishment of the newly independent American government when people began to move around the country. The reasons for moving varied from religious obligations, promises of owning land, and the need for employment. 

From the huge amount of people moving around the country, letters had become essential for reaching out to families back home, which brought together a country undergoing major changes during this time.

The letters from this time express the unpleasant feelings of those who moved West, providing us—current readers and historians—with insight on the average life of an American during the time and the difficulties people may have faced. 

Delivering news as devastating as never seeing a loved one again is heartbreaking and difficult to give. Today, when we are faced with the task of breaking such news to someone, we’d typically prefer to do it face to face to offer comfort. However, during this time letters were the only way of communication due to distance and lesser transportation technology. This lacked the physical presence and comfort one might need when receiving bad news. To put words on a paper in coherent sentences is difficult as well—after all, how do you share such tragic news on just a sheet of paper? How do you show you care when you aren’t there? 

People had to make letters more impactful to make up for the challenge of being restricted to letter-only communication. Letters during this time became more expressive, more powerful—enough to bring tears to one’s eyes from reading.

During World War II, letters became a vital part of communication around the world. There was such a great amount of letters being sent that military ships were loaded with bags of letters. This caused issues seeing as the spaces used for letters were also needed for the transportation of weapons during war. Additionally, there were fears that military secrets written in letters would end up in enemy hands, putting the army at risk. To address this issue, a technique called “V-mail” was put into use. V-mail was a special postal system which enforced restrictions of the length and content of the letter.

Despite restrictions, letter writing was crucial to the families of soldiers who were sent out for combat for long periods of time, often losing connection between their loved ones. These letters helped soldiers in war maintain their personal relationships, expressing their feelings and informing each other on their health and well-being—allowing them to sustain communication despite being thousands of miles away. 

Historians use these letters from the Westward Expansion, World War II, and many more time periods to analyze the historical situation and emotions of civilizations then. However, this is not the only advantage of analyzing such artifacts. While we can see the value of letters during these times, we can also learn how writing has developed over time. 

There was a time when the art of letter writing was as popular as text messaging today. During the 18th century, often referred to as The Great Age of Letter Writing, the language of letters was much more formal than our simple emails today. Since letters were the only form of communication over long-distances at the time, writing letters was incorporated into education for both men and women.

In my English class, my teacher had asked us how many of us had learned to formally write in school. I noticed only a few of my fellow peers and I have had some writing lessons taught to us; these lessons went over basic structural rules of writing, formality, and writing in cursive. Even then, we didn’t have these lessons for too long; I only had lessons to write in cursive in 2nd through 4th grade. However, when my teacher asked how many of us have had lessons on how to type, the majority of us raised our hands. When we broke into discussion, we realized we have had typing lessons for a longer time throughout our school years and have practiced it more. This was interesting because when our teacher talked about what lessons he had done in school, he said he did more writing lessons than typing lessons. 

In modern days we’ve adapted to typing, meaning our education will prioritize teaching students how to master typing over hand writing. This does not mean that students are not taught writing at all, it just became less common as opposed to typing lessons that are taught more often today and put into practice every day in class. Today, writing letters may be simple, but back then there were specific rules that must be followed. There were manuals to follow for things such as addressing the recipient. One manual that the American Philosophical Society refers to is The Art of Letter-Writing, which states “Many being at a loss how to address persons of distinctions either in writing or discourse, are frequently subject to great mistakes in the style and title due to superiors.” 

The way you addressed someone played a great role in how your message was perceived. For example, if you were to write a letter to Queen Victoria, who ruled over the United Kingdom from June 1837 to January 1901, it would be considered offensive to address it to “Buckingham Palace” rather than “London.” It implies that the person is not well known enough to easily be found based on an unspecified address. The address of the letter depending on the receiver still is something we do today, but it isn’t taken as seriously as it was before.

There are other nitty bitty rules that letter writing followed at the time. We still follow similar guidelines today, just with more lenience. This is how letter writing has changed; with less effort put into writing and switching to typing, we’ve also put less effort into following the rules of letter writing.

Letters differ from one another, whether it is the purpose of writing or the material. From around 3000 B.C.E. to around 500 C.E., people had used materials like metal, wooden tablets, animal skin, and more. For example, Cydippe with the Apple of Acontius created by Paulus Bor depicts a scene taken from the Heroides by Roman poet Ovid. In this scene, Acontius had gone to the Temple of Diana to Cydippe, whom Acontius loved. Acontius proceeded to throw an apple inside the temple with the words “I swear by the sanctuary of Diana that I will marry Acontius.” When Cydippe picked up the apple, she read the words out loud, and because of the religious setting, this turned the words said out loud into a solemn vow. Although the delivery was unusual, Acontius was determined to show his love and get his message across with any means necessary.

Typically, we don’t use apples as a way to communicate. However, the amount of effort Acontius put into expressing his feelings—showcasing his creativity, and demonstrating his resourcefulness—conveyed his strong feelings of love beyond simple words. This is an important aspect of letter writing: that the delivery of the message holds as much value as the words on the page. The fact this is a fictional tale that emphasizes the importance of delivery further shows how important it was in Roman culture. Letter writing is more than just a conversation, it is an act of love. 

The “Love” In Letters

It’s true what everyone says—actions do speak louder than words. We trust someone not on their words, but on their ability to show them. This is human, we don’t simply trust what someone says all the time; we read body language, we look for solid evidence, anything that isn’t just “I promise.”

Taking the time to handwrite letters makes your message become more valuable. The act of writing down and taking the time to not make mistakes, rather than speed typing a message that takes at most five minutes, shows you mean every word. Adding cute, creative images, cutting out different designs, and the other elements of craftsmanship in a letter, can show love that words cannot.

You may think this is similar to journalistic photography, art you see in a museum, or poetry. Artists, photographers, and writers are able to convey so much emotion and meaning without directly saying so, and as humans we prefer this, to be able to express our thoughts in unique ways, and to receive in-depth messages. As Tashfia Khan said, “I love being able to express myself not just with words but with art too.”

The art of letter writing can show so much more emotion than words can; letter writing also gives you the room to add your personality. Little details put into letters make it feel more authentic. According to Ameena Khan ’28, an aspiring artist, “a handwritten gift you are getting is something more ‘human,’ if that makes sense. You can see the strokes of the pen and the handwriting, it gives it more soul and depth.”

The room and freedom you have when crafting a letter makes it unique, memorable, and soulful. It is truly a great art if you want to leave a mark on someone. However, modern advancements made it more uncommon to receive a letter or to take the time to write a letter. Before, it was the only means of communication with others—but now, writing has become a chore for most people.

Writing in the Digital World

With technological advancements, we’ve found more efficient ways to communicate. To avoid the hassle of long-distance communication, waste of resources, and dedication of too much time, emailing and text-messaging became our way of communicating. With the overwhelming amount of entertainment around us as well, our attention spans have become shorter, which makes it difficult for us to dedicate time to handwriting messages. Since then, the art of letter writing has drastically decreased and become almost extinct. 

When I explained this to my mom, she claimed that “cards have always been a part of the times. They are in most stores around, a card for any type of situation.” However, this further proves my point; we have become used to the effortless message sending. We need cards with prewritten, unoriginal layouts to send to our loved ones. This kills the significance of a card, getting rid of the aspects that make cards sweet and meaningful.

However, letter writing has not completely gone away. In modern society, letters are required in some legal processes as written confirmation, along with sending letters to soldiers, offering a sense of home to those away. Although not as popular as before, it hasn’t been erased entirely, and has been slowly making its way back to a bigger role in modern times.

The Future Path for Letter-Writing

Slowly but surely, the art of writing has been making a comeback. Today, we use letters and aspects of letters to communicate heartfelt things and make moments special. Take prom, for example: a big part is making an extraordinary poster to ask someone to prom. The more detail and creativity in a poster, the better it is. 

With posters and other forms of letters, you are free to add details that text messages are restricted from. Letter writing itself is an art, but other types of artwork usually can be incorporated into letters, such as small drawings or cute designs. This adds a touch of personality to the letter, a confirmation like “yup, they definitely wrote this.” Similar for the writer, an artist can use this as a way to express their emotions, maybe the clearest form of communication for them. Ameena Khan agrees, stating, “My art is an outlet. It allows me to storytell, to create or retell a story. It allows me to express my emotions and thoughts and turn it into something bewitching,” later adding that her feelings are best shown through her work.

With many alternatives to handwritten letters in modern society that are more convenient and less time consuming, this makes handwritten letters more important. Consider if your significant other had chosen to write you something that took them hours to perfect instead of a text message. Wouldn’t you feel more appreciated? 

As more people began to realize how meaningful handwritten letters are today, the art of letter writing has started to gain popularity again. With a quick YouTube or TikTok search, you can find thousands of tutorials on how to make various types of cards; you can learn how to make a pop-up card, or how to make an interactive card. There are many creative ways to make a card, but the value of a card comes from your action to make one in the first place. 

The art of letter writing has had its own journey, revealed in the changes of usage throughout history. Letter writing has many purposes, but the ability to convey emotion and show presence is what keeps letter writing alive today. 

So, the next time you want to write a nice message to your colleagues or loved ones—are you going to write a letter, or stick with texting?

We trust someone not on their words, but on their ability to show them.