From the moment I saw this assignment, I knew that I wanted to write a letter to my mom and dad. I am incredibly close with my parents, and I always wanted to write a letter to them while at college, but I never got around to doing it. I am really glad writing a letter was an assignment because it forced me to do it. I don’t have my stationary with me at college, so I had to write my letter on a piece of notebook paper, which caused me to write a pretty long letter. Since I knew I probably wouldn’t write another letter to my parents, I decided to use up the entire sheet of paper and really go into detail about not only me college experience so far, but also my childhood. Writing this letter caused me to really think back and reflect upon my childhood and how my parents did so much for me, and still do. By focusing on only my letter, I was able to remember many memories that I have not though about in so long. I feel like everyday I am so busy and I never have time to reflect on my life now and then, so I really loved being able to have this time of reflection. I did not think that I was going to take a long time writing this letter, but it ended up taking me about an hour to get everything in the letter that I wanted to. I am really excited for my parents to get the letter because I feel like they are going to really love it and they will be able to save it and really cherish it. Overall, I loved writing the letter and I thought that it was an amazing experience!

Writing a letter is not as easy as it seems. When I first heard this assignment I expected it to take me about 10-15 minutes to write the letter, but it ended up taking just 15 minutes to figure out how to start the letter. I wrote a letter to my best friend that is going to school in Alabama. Whenever we are together we can never stop talking, but I was surprised at how awkward I felt while writing the letter even though I was writing to one of my best friends. Staring at the blank sheet of paper as the minutes passed by, I had no idea what to write. I felt like I was overthinking everything that I wrote because it felt more permanent when I wrote it by hand. Once I started writing, I sort of felt like I was either talking to myself or overpowering the conversation because there was no response from the other side. I have been so used to sending or saying short messages to people through texts, emails, or phone calls and then immediately receiving a response. Even though I had so much to say and to tell my friend, I just did not know how to put it into words for the letter. Finally, I just decided that I was overthinking myself too much and wrote down everything that I was thinking. Once I finished the letter, I realized that I have no idea what my friend’s address is at school. Sure, we did just move to new addresses for school, but it’s weird to think how we can be best friends with someone yet not know something as basic as their address. I can’t imagine what my friend’s response is going to be when she receives my letter because the only time we really get letters in the mail these days are for “thank you” letters. I definitely underestimated how hard it would be to write a letter.

I wrote my letter to my older brother who lives in Virginia which was weird because I only really communicate with him through text, occasional phone calls, or in person when he visits home. Handwriting a letter wasn’t anything particularly odd or new for me because I hand-wrote all my senior letters for my close friends a few months ago. I like the concept of handwriting letters because it feels more sentimental. I felt the need to fill out a whole page to fill in my brother on my life whereas through text it is confined to a mere 160 characters in one message. Writing this letter gave me the opportunity to reminisce with my brother during this transition to college and thank him for being an awesome sibling so this assignment was super fun for me!

Letters during this modern age may be outdated, but they’re thoughtful and sentimental. It’s a nice form of media to go back to because it means people take time out of their day to sit down and think out what they want to say as opposed to shooting a quick text or email.

So I wrote an actual letter other than a thank you letter for the first time in about 5 years today, and wow was it odd. While writing the letter, I noticed  that I was very unsure of the proper formatting that comes with writing a letter and quickly found myself on google. Another interesting development that I noticed was my inclination to use texting language in the formal letter, something that would be considered rather out of place. I was struggling for sentences and thoughts that actually contained substance and worthy of writing down in the letter as well. The recipient of my letter is a friend of mine who is still in high school, so I absolutely had plenty of talking points, but I kept coming up short as all my sentences seemed to be simple sentences. This process actually opened my eyes to how much texting and mass media have revolutionized the communication realm of the world. Although letters have been highly efficient for hundreds of years, in a mere 10 years they have been completely overtaken by social media. This is a slightly saddening reality that we all have to deal with, but optimistically we can appreciate just how easily we are able to communicate with others around the globe.

Okay, so I just finished writing a letter to my cousin who goes to school in Florida and I would have to say it was very weird. Typically if I want to get ahold of her I would just shoot her a text message. Writing a letter to her seems so odd and formal to me. It makes you take a step back and actually think about what you are saying, rather than just clicking send too fast to even spell check.
If you had asked me to send someone a letter 4 months ago, I would have been ashamed at the fact that I would have struggled to address it. That’s insane! Twelve years of public school education and I would have struggled with addressing an envelope. The only reason I am (barely) comfortable with this form of media is because I wrote close to 50 thank you notes this summer for graduation gifts.
It’s crazy to me that our generation has almost completely eliminated this form of media from our lives. Also, this form of media is very generational. Here at college, my grandma sends me a handwritten letter every week keeping me up to date about her life. I would typically just text her about what’s new with me, but after this assignment I am going to go buy stationary and become her official pen pal. Taking the time to analyze what you are going to say when writing a letter truly seems so much more meaningful and heartfelt then texting someone.

Hey! My name is Augusta King, and I am a freshman this year. I am from Atlanta, GA and I went to the same school, Westminster, since kindergarten. At this moment my major is Intended Business, but I am still not exactly sure of what I want to do after I graduate! In high school I played squash, ran cross country and managed the guy’s varsity soccer team. I really enjoyed being involved in these teams because I got to be around my friends while being active. I live in Brumby Hall and I am really enjoying getting to meet new people! So far, I love UGA and am excited for what is to come!

Tetrad: Snapchat

Enhances:Allows people to keep in touch on a more personal level than texting. By sending pictures of what you are doing in that moment, people feel more connected with you. The snap streak feature of Snapchat encourages people to stay in touch on a daily basis in order to keep the streak.

Snapchat also allows people to promote different companies, which benefits both the company and Snapchatter.

Retrieves: Allows people to keep in touch with lots of people in many different places. While texting can sometimes feel boring, Snapchat makes staying connecting more entertaining, which encourages people to communicate more frequently.

Reverses Into: The pressure of taking interesting pictures that you think would entertain people. Also, the pressure of having to be by your phone in order to reply to Snapchats that you receive. These pressures can cause people to become obsessed with Snapchat, which could take away from appreciating moments for your own good, and not somebody else’s.

Obsolesces: Snapchat’s chat and FaceTime features can prevent the need to communicate outside of the app. Also the pictures you take on Snapchat can prevent the need to take pictures on your camera or post pictures on Facebook or Instagram.