Letter writing in a digital world...

Parents today may bemoan the fact that their children no longer give attention to neat handwriting and accuracy of punctuation, spelling and grammar in their day-to-day communication. However, while still being able to empathise with and understand our children, we also need to accept that the world they live in requires different skills from those we needed as we grew up.

We need to be mindful that the world our teenagers inhabit has in some ways changed significantly and there are differences which we should also not underestimate. Letter writing, including notes of thanks, were a common feature of the childhood of many of today’s parents. It is still common among people (mainly women, I have to say) of this generation to send hand-written thank you notes for a variety of reasons. But this is one of the traditions which may not survive the development of technology; nowadays day-to-day communication takes a different form.

If our children these days wish to communicate they will use text, email, instant messaging and Facebook to do so. Handwriting becomes irrelevant. Punctuation, spelling and grammar may be utilitarian and only used for sense, rather than obeying the rules we have been taught. Young people ARE still taught these rules, and they do know the importance of following them in certain contexts – in GCSE coursework, in an examination, writing a formal report perhaps (the latter something they may well be required to do once they start work). The skills are still there but, in their everyday contact with each other, shortcuts apply and, as long as they can be understood by their audience, the formal language conventions will not concern them.

Texting at speed and making yourself understood using the particular code which may apply is a skill of its own. It may not be a skill shared by all of the parents’ generation. Other skills – writing a long, entertaining and reflective letter to a friend; keeping a diary (which again encourages you to process and reflect on your experiences) as opposed to an on-line blog – these may die out. But the world our children live in and the future we are preparing them for is not the same as the one in which we grew up. Empathise with your children – but recognise the differences in these worlds too, and the different skills set our children may require as a result.