Will Facebook Kill The Christmas Letter?
December 28th, 2010 | by Jen |With social networking letting us follow our friends’ every move, do we still need an annual Christmas summary?
Remember the family Christmas letter? The annual newsletter you’d receive from family and friends, letting you know what they’ve been doing during the year. They mostly seem to focus on what the children have been up to - documenting little Billy’s first steps and little Sally’s first day at school.
Pretty much everyone I’d consider sending a Christmas letter to is my friend on Facebook. They already know what my family has been up to during the year, and I know what they’ve been up to. I’m not sure if we all need a recap.
Of course some people would argue that Facebook is what’s wrong with the world, as it’s killing the art of communication. Short snippets of information are a poor substitute for well-considered prose. A good family Christmas letter is more than a bullet point list of events. A family Christmas letter should convey much more, looking at the reasoning behind your actions along with your hopes and dreams for the future. It’s not just a list of What you did, it covers the How, Where, When and - most importantly - Why.
Has Facebook replaced your family Christmas letter? Is it worth reviving?