…The dangers of online communication consists of the illogical acceptance that worthwhile human connections can, in the digital age, be condensed into the simple reception (receival) of typed words or sentences. The truth of the matter is, real connection is all too often felt rather than spoken.
The simple physical presence of the other does matter.
Handwriting is important because it was once (rightly) understood as the essence or the physical embodiment of the speaker of those words. Type might be beautiful, but a sprawling typed letter is but a feeble distillation of its author’s ‘presence’ when compared to a short handwritten grocery list, especially if it comes from that same deceased family member.
We find or construct associations in the handwritten word as opposed to the typed one. Surely, the subtle variations found in one’s emotionally rendered cursive communicates a sense of what is being felt as as opposed to what is being said, even in comparison to emojis.
Slanted or hasty, whole or fragmented, poetic, considered or a simple emotional outpouring, how we write matters. We can try and boost or emphasize a simple yes with a smiley or a coloured text but will it ever beats the excitement found or felt in the hastily scrawled YAY or YES in the notes passed round a class during a lesson…
describing space 