Random Thoughts…
Thoughts that come up in our everyday lives…
Another near-extinct species?
Author: Renji John1 Jul
In biology and ecology, extinction is the death of every member of a species or group of taxa. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species
Dear friends,
It is with a heavy heart that I bring to your attention that one interesting human habit is dying out fast – making Pen-pals.
A penpal relationship is often used to practice reading and writing in a foreign language, to improve literacy, to learn more about other countries and life-styles, and to make friendships. As with any friendships in life, some people remain penpals for only a short time, while others continue to exchange letters and presents life-long. Some penpals eventually arrange to meet face to face. Some pen pals even get married.
I used to have pen-pals as a child. I used to write to them, imagine what it would be like to be them, from their letters and hoped that one day I would get to meet them. (Note:I was pretty much normal at that point in time. 
)
But with the advent of Facebook, orkut and a multitude of chat clients, it all slowly faded away. There is no longer a need to get to the post office, find the right postage amount and write something in your best hand.
For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace.– Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
The time of pen-pals is almost up. e-pals anyone?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 India License
7 Responses for "Another near-extinct species?"
Hi Renji,
True that the concept of penpals are slowly reaching its demise but if u analize it…. tats just not true.
the concept just has been reinvented ,thanks to the arrival of the cyberworld where you can easily send mails across the globe or maybe even to extra terrestrials out there.
and also social networking sites have taken a ma major chunk off when it comes to makin friends.
so its just that the concept has been re-invented to suit and adjust with the times.
as the sayin’ goes : “its just old wine in a new bottle”.
cheers
Ditto with Roy!
If I had half the number of pen pals as to the number of e-pals I have now, my handwriting would’ve been magnanimous!
Roy and Hari: I know times have changed. And I do use a lot of the networking tools out there…
But I can’t help but miss the good old ‘pen and paper’ routine… There was something very primal about it that made communication so personal and individualistic… And more importantly, it did not have the cc and bcc options… 
Primal, is right.. the waiting, the expectation, the anticipation, the CHARM, is gone.. But hey Renji, on a percentage scale, how important was the “Some pen pals even get married.” bit for you?
@eMJay: I confess I did have ‘ulterior’ motives…
Renji,
You are very much right. In my school and jr. college time, i had a lot of penpals. Used to contact them from a penpal forum in a popular magazine Scientific Reporter which I used to read those days.
Slowly its all faded. Constant connectivity has may be driven it away.
I kept my habit alive during my graduation days, when I used to write to my gal and we used to write almost every week or fortnight.
With her going out of life, the habit also went off..
reg
NC
Its 21st century , people don’t have time even to eat or rather even to think … then how can they waste their precious time on scribbling emotions on a piece of paper. Whenever we feel like writing we open our lappy , I am afraid soon people will forget how to write.
Don’t you think so that life has become so fast … I dont mind if it becomes a little slow again : where people will find time to meet , talk about trivial issues , celebrate and yeah making pen-pals
- Somyaa
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