Love letters reconsidered: The digital death of pouring out your feelings onto the page 

In our modern and digital age, the traditional love letter has all but died out, with the rise of Snapchat, texting, and apps like Tinder and Hinge. Love letters are a dying form of communication and expression. People nowadays opt for a simple text to express their love, as opposed to a fancy poem or a personal essay. 

Whether it be a formal love letter received in the post, a note passed in class or left in somebody’s locker, or a postcard, there is something unique about a physical manifestation of love, and the effort which went into curating and expressing it. In fact, this preference of the physical over the digital, owing to the physicality and permanence of the form, is why many people still prefer physical books to e-books or Kindles, film cameras to digital cameras, and scrapbooking or printing photos rather than just saving them to ‘the cloud’.  

“The permanence of a letter” is perhaps a commitment that many people nowadays are not prepared to make

However, there was not a single and direct shift from love letters to texting: instead, over time, love letters turned into e-mails and phone calls, and eventually gave way to the common practice of texting. So, this transition demonstrates the gradual nature of the decline in both the social and physical aspects of our interactions. 

As an article by Vogue outlines, “the permanence of a letter” is perhaps a commitment that many people nowadays are not prepared to make. The rise of the term ‘situationships’ (a more casual form of dating) is arguably reflective of the decrease regarding interest in commitment, as represented by dwindling marriage rates. 

Modern-day forms of communicating our love cannot replicate the power of writing

Modern-day forms of communicating our love cannot replicate the power of writing, as can be seen by a brief exploration of a few of the most powerful expressions of love from the past. 

Starting off our look at some of the most romantic love letters of all time is those which were exchanged between Oscar Wilde (the Irish poet and playwright) and Lord Alfred Douglas. Within one of these, Wilde writes “everyone is furious with me for going back to you, but they don’t understand us.” Centuries later, the letters between the two men are recognised as love letters, in spite of the rejection of same-sex relationships by the Victorian England where they lived. 

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, despite the turbulent nature of their marriage, also wrote various love letters to each other over the course of their relationship. In a letter from The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait, Kahlo describes how much she loves Diego’s physical form, and specifically how “nothing compares to your hands [and] the green-gold of your eyes.” She even mentions his blood, which, albeit creepy and a little disturbing, still serves the purpose of highlighting how much she loves him and her ultimate devotion. 

There is something undeniably iconic about the love letters which have stood the test of time, and the thought and dedication which went into crafting them

Virginia Woolf (best known for her novels, such as Mrs Dalloway, and her contribution to the modernist movement in literature) exchanged a series of love letters with English poet Vita Sackville-West. A letter sent from where the poet was staying in Milan, in January 1927, contrasts the “flowery, ornate prose” of Woolf. Sackville-West is much more concise and blatant through her words, as she tells Woolf, “I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia” and that “you have broken down my defenses.” 

So, romance may not be completely dead in our modern society, and you may consider it a blessing that no one in future generations or centuries to come will be able to see or remember those messages which you sent on Snapchat. However, there is something undeniably iconic about the love letters which have stood the test of time, and the thought and dedication which went into crafting them.