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+title = "letters in the digital age"
+published_at = "2025-07-16T19:12:51+01:00"
+updated_at = "2025-07-16T19:12:51+01:00"
+tags = ["thoughts", "writing"]
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+
+when was the last time you wrote a letter? like, a proper letter. for a lot of people, the closest thing could have been some thank-you cards as a child. if you were lucky, you were possibly taught how to format and write both casual and formal letters in English class. if you were very lucky, or if you were a nerd., maybe you had a pen-pal.
+
+i've been trying my best to learn how to actually communicate effectively with people, as part of maintaining and growing meaningful relationships. there are so many facets to being in touch, and oddly, there isn't actually that much good advice on the topic. one would think asking older people would work, but simply being older is not ever indicative of a mastery of this aspect of life. well, i'm still figuring it out, but through experimentation i feel like i've accidentally discovered (along with those i practice with) an oddly forgotten methodology. letter writing.
+
+everybody has different communication styles and strengths, and each kind of communication, the same. actively talking is one thing, but writing is another. sure, you can always write a long text. but the texting experience/medium is just utterly garbage for this. everybody hates long texts. the long text is less likely to have thought in it. it usually ends up being a long rant or a screed, absent of any editing, even at the level of a spell/grammar check. either it's a massive paragraph or it's a train-of-thought series of massive paragraphs, both hard to read and total slogs.
+
+letters are different. traditionally, by nature of being a physical thing, they have gravity. upon reception, the sender has from-the-outset communicated a base level of intentionality. "i did not just write this, i had to sit down and _make_ this for you.", inviting the reader to meet them where they are at and out of respect, at the minimum attempt to mirror any intentionality, patience, and thought in their reading.
+
+all the benefits of long-form writing apply. it takes time. parts can be written on different days, communicating the nuances and developments that come from mulling over thoughts and feelings over extended periods. akin to journaling, there is the ability to converse with your past self. there is no rush. the act of care in editing takes time and leads to new epiphanies.
+
+on a technical level, there is further expression in mixed media, attachments, styling (colors, calligraphy/font, decoration ?), layout. i think this idea alone has the capacity to be infectious. already i have mentioned it in passing to people and they have surprised me with letters, each in their own style. they are fully formed windows into personal thoughts and reflections in high definition. there are so many details to pick up on. the contrast with other formats is so stark. an acquaintance surprised me with a letter, and i felt able to subconsciously pick up the ridiculously high number of choices that must be made, were not made. 
+
+a one-to-one (or one-to-few), private dynamic distinguishes letters from public, published, long-form written media. prose is subtly different. however, finally dispatching the letter _is_ somewhat reflective of publishing. the anxiety. it is no longer possible to make edits, add more information, details, etc. then one is left awaiting a possible reply, which will also take longer than usual, as the reader has to digest and possibly even write their own letter. any extended dialogue is slower. there is little risk of being accidentally brash. responses also don't have to be letters too. letters can spark multi-layered discussions and conversations. keep balances! don't get carried away and lost within the letters. use them as excuses to meet in person.
+
+the letters also immediately become snapshots in time of feelings, thoughts, relationships, that can even be referenced and quoted in new letters, building an interconnected multi-dimensional canon of lives and relations, to be reflected upon in the far future.
+
+--
+
+the cool thing is basically all of this is accessible in combination with additional possiblities arising from a digital format. as such, i would like to introduce the retro-new concept of digital letter writing, utilising the building blocks of html and css.
+
+html is the perfect format for letters as it encourages mixed media while being text-first. for those who do not know, html is hyper-text markup language, the language used in the web. it is usually used in combination with css (cascading style sheets), to render, format, layout and style webpages. html5/css3 are stable, being mature formats used over decades and likely to be here to stay much longer. they are also portable. every computing device with a web browser can open an html file.
+
+in digital letter-writing, html is handwritten. all data is included in one file, everything embedded in the html. css styling is inline. images, videos, fonts, are all encoded as base64 urls. using html/css grants a similar level of expression you can achieve with a physical letter, with the benefits that come from a digital format, namely, said digital media. it is possible to embed interactivity that would not be possible with paper and pen: video, hyperlinks, sounds, games (?).
+
+it is not a requirement to be restricted to html and css. if you know javascript or another programming language with web/wasm capabilities it's possible to build-in even more advanced interactivity. however, don't underestimate using only html and css. by sticking to a minimalist spirit it's easy to get carried away into css-demoscene-adjacent rabbit holes. css is capable of advanced animations, and interesting results can be reached with pseudo-classes and odd html element types[^1]. such a mentality can also encourage a dig into the plain html, to discover a hidden layer of thought, as well as new methodologies to learn from one another.
+
+learning html/css is easy if you've never done it. i will update this article with a video/text tutorial once i have finally finished that project, but for now, i would recommend the awesome mozilla [mdn web docs](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development). and these skills are also useful for building websites! if you don't enjoy directly writing everything from the start as html, i would recommend beginning with [markdown](https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/) (which is basically just fancy-formatted plain text), and then converting that to html using either a markdown-to-html web tool or something like [comrak](https://github.com/kivikakk/comrak?tab=readme-ov-file#usage).
+
+when you're done with your composition, all that's left to do is to optionally date it, either in-content or possibly as an html comment, then send the html file however you like. instant messenger, e-mail, physically mailed usb stick? then the recipient gets to download, view, and possibly archive it for safekeeping. i store my digital letters in a special folder in my documents folder, organised by dates, correspondents, threads. this manual aspect adds a differentiation to email, as well as the fact files must be managed locally and with respect and care to ensure data longevity.
+
+as a proposition, i believe this concept could be taken further. this all is still somewhat of a starting point, and i think spreading the word a bit could help in unveiling new related ideas. so try it out and see where it takes you <3
+
+p.s. on a separate note, i love the concept of paperless post. if i had more time i would develop some kind of paperless post clone, but even better, incorporating these ideas for further expressiveness. WebXDC
+
+p.p.s. this all has gotten me interested to read posthumously published letters too :)
+
+[^1]: [Inline CSS Puzzle Box: suricrasia.online](https://suricrasia.online/blog/inline-css-puzzle-box/)