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Now that we’ve taken communication to the digital level, let’s have a look at how communication and its effectiveness have been transformed into a seamless virtual experience.

Not so many years ago we used pen and paper to send love notes in class, or to jot down a message to let our parents know who called. We also used pen and paper to take tests and do project assignments.

Now all these have changed. We’ve digitized communication, entertainment, education – we have digitized life as a whole.

How do you communicate these days?

Pen and paper communication is becoming a lost art. Just like sending love letters and thank you notes, the modern world seems to have forgotten these old-fashioned standards.

More flamboyant, shiny ways replaced these handwritten activities. We use Snapchat to share our mood, Facebook messages to express our feelings and socialize, and Instagram to communicate our status and fun life. We type to communicate.

Today, pen and paper is being replaced in classrooms by keyboard and screen. Educational technology has transformed the classroom and the learning environment. Students interact with one another through apps and tablets and take tests online. Teachers monitor performance in real-time and offer personalized learning thanks to smart software.

As our lives become more and more entrenched in technology, our communication skills are evolving too. We don’t write longhand any more, or as much, at least. We touch type our feelings, our thoughts, our work, and our assignments.

Typing is time-efficient and in line with technological trends. It’s hard to believe that we would want to go back to pen and paper for communication in many ways.

Some argue that the physical, visceral experience of hand-writing is something that cannot be experienced on a keyboard, let alone a touch screen.

Yet the message does get written, and it does get where it should go. The experience is different for sender and receiver; less physical and emotional and more executive. But we cannot deny its effectiveness as a message, no matter the medium.

Pen and paper is becoming a pastime, a habit or a passion for many. The less people engage in the activity of handwritten communication, the more its status will become that of an eclectic, forgotten art. Embrace technological change, but do look back to the past, and use handwritten documents when how you say something is as important as what you say.