I am pretty much the last generation that had the pen pal experience. There might be a modern version via the internet. But the experience cannot be the same. There was a limit to the amount of information you could really put in a letter. It’s not just email — the forwarding of websites and images, instant messaging and social network sites would all make for a very different experience. Part of the pen pal experience involved time. The time between letters and waiting for responses was part of the experience. Young people with pen pals had an understanding of the size of the world and how long and tenuous those connections to other kids around the planet were. For many young people it was their first connection with different people in far away places.
So, when was the last time you wrote a letter to Olga?
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