In pre-internet times, women with nothing else to do (‘kept women’, I think is the term) could very feasibly have spent all morning dealing with their correspondence. Letter writing, etc. Communication was once seen as a great art –among the many collected volumes of letters that have been selected and published in anthologies over the last few years are those of Jane Austen and the legendary Mitford sisters. Austen’s letters shed light on some of the greatest works of modern British literature, whilst the Mitfords’ give us an invaluable insight into some of the most torrid yet socially and politically important events of the twentieth century.
‘Dealing with my correspondence’ was undoubtedly very important for most comfortably off or aristocratic women. ‘Kept women’ might be the wrong term –in past times this was the social expectation, of course. But I can’t help feeling, whilst at home during my long, long summer break from university, that I too am biding my time, waiting. My long term aims might be different, of course. But essentially my days follow a rough pattern. I read. I meet friends for lunch and conversation, or other social purposes. I visit family. I take trips to London, Stratford, Madrid and Greece. I write the occasional article, commenting on society. And I do, of course, spend a great deal of time ‘keeping up with my correspondence’.
Although the art of letter writing has somewhat been lost over the last half century or so –we can justifiably blame busy lifestyles and the internet for this– there are still snatches of it in society. I am talking, as you may have guessed, about Facebook.
Facebook is no doubt a very modern social phenomenon. But it essentially lets us do what our ancestors did, albeit a lot quicker. But young people who spend a lot of time ‘keeping up with their correspondence’ now –through the medium of Facebook– are generally looked at with scorn. They are wasting their time.
But apart from it being a very much less romanticised way to communicate when compared to letter writing, I do not see a whole lot of difference. By logging onto Facebook, I am simply using modern technology to do exactly as my peers have done for hundreds of years. The only difference, essentially, is that I am doing it in the twenty first century.
Looking over neatly hand written letters might offer a more sentimental and romantic notion than simply clicking a button and viewing a mutual ‘wall-to-wall’ conversation. But times have changed –and with change there often comes a loss of beauty. It is not something that we can fight, I don’t think –it is something, simply, that is. And it might be a shame –but we shouldn’t blame anyone for this, especially those who are simply trying to keep up to date with their acquaintances, and doing it in the easiest way they know how.
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