If you’re reading this, the enigmatic, hashtagged, web savvy, social title for this post hasn’t put you off, and that’s a good thing. I hope.
I was out for a run this morning, and a few things hit me. Bear with me while I break it down.
I was thinking about this blog post from a few months ago. To summarise, it’s a young woman who still hand writes a lot of letters and explores that idea, or at least hints at something more sinister and scary; that in this day and age, with technology becoming more integrated with everything we do, handwriting, plain old ball point pen handwriting, could become an art form, or worse still, a lost art form.
I can’t remember the last time I hand-wrote something to someone other than myself.
I was also thinking about the anticipation of communication. Remember waiting with baited breath as your old modem dialled, fizzed and buzzed it’s way online and you could check your email? Or rushing down to the letterbox to see if there was anything inside other than a bill? I communicated by letter only with my now-wife for several years and the anticipation of communication is quite dizzying and sweet. I thought about this because whilst jogging I checked my email 3 times, caught up on Twitter replies, DM’s and LinkedIn recommendations… it was all immediate gratification, or in some cases disappointment.
Hardly a replacement for the joy of finding a hand written, hand addressed envelope intended for you and you only.
So I’m going to do something small about it to hopefully give some joy, excitement, maybe even a laugh to some of you.
If I have met you in person in the last week or two, or tweeted back and forth a few times, basically had some kind of online engagement with you recently or in the future, I’m going to hand-write, hand address and post you a #slowtweet. Just a short message from me, and maybe a little picture, because I like drawing pictures.
You probably know who you are, if you’ve read this far, or suspect it anyway. My gifts to you are the anticipation you will feel between reading this blog post and opening a hand addressed envelope dropping on your desk or somewhere sometime soon (time to be determined by Australia Post), and the message therein.
And if you want to send something back, you’re very welcome. Either way, welcome to the #slowtweet.
