Father’s Day Gift for the Technophobe? Snail (E)Mail.

Have you ever heard this from an older person in your life, maybe a grandparent? “You never write!” Maybe they’ve mentioned that when they were young, everyone kept up with their correspondence as is polite to do and the amount of mail going through the postal system wasn’t dropping 5% a year. I’ve had a conversation rather like this, and I tried to explain how I write far more than I ever have in my life by way of correspondence – not only is there email, but there’s Facebook, and Twitter, and on and on. And my cousin who has a baby seems to be posting status updates for every burp, gurgle, and coo, and wouldn’t you like to figure out how to use a computer so that you can read all about it? No? Well, I really am sorry, but I don’t even keep stamps in the house anymore. We’ll just have to make do with phone calls.

But just in time for Father’s Day, the New York Times reports on three services designed to “bridge the technical divide between those who e-mail and their loved ones who don’t.” The solution? Print ’em out! Print it all out. Emails, Facebook, Twitter feeds, even calendar reminders. Some of these services involve a printer/fax machine sort of device that just runs itself and spits out print-outs as they come in. Though one, Sunnygram, is even more old school – it sends a package once a week via USPS, and even allows the recipient to handwrite replies; the company will then scan them and send them via email.

It all seems a little convoluted to me (and imagine if you had to wait a week to get all of your emails!), but I guess if you are both a technophobe and fond of snail mail, it might be a nice solution. Of course, I might recommend leaving off the Twitter/Facebook except maybe in the case of my cousin with the gurgling baby; grandpa probably doesn’t want to read thirty pages of “OMG JUST DROPPED MY KEYS LOLOLOLZ” or frame those pictures of his grandson doing a keg stand.

[Picture source: Flickr (CC)]