Which outdated technology do you miss the most, and why?

The answer may surprise you, because it isn’t an old gadget or a forgotten piece of kit.

It’s letters.

Not because I’m against email. Far from it. Email is brilliant at what it does. It’s instant, searchable and gets the job done. When Adam from HR or Tom from Accounts needs last quarter’s numbers by 3pm, you don’t reach for a fountain pen and a sheet of A4.

But somewhere along the way, convenience quietly replaced something much more personal.

I joined the Army in the 1990s, before smartphones, social media and the internet became part of everyday life. Back then, one of the biggest highlights of the week was mail call.

It wasn’t just about hearing your name.

It was knowing that someone had sat down, found the time, and written to you. Every envelope was different. Different handwriting. Different paper. Sometimes there were photographs folded inside. Sometimes childish drawings. Sometimes a pressed flower, a train ticket or some other little keepsake that meant nothing to anyone else but everything to you.

And then there were the things technology still can’t replicate.

You can’t spray an email with her favourite perfume.

You can’t instantly recognise who’s written before you’ve even opened it because of the handwriting on the envelope.

And you certainly don’t get the entertainment of trying to decipher handwriting so spectacularly bad it needs its own translator.

A letter had character. It had imperfections. It had fingerprints, creases and coffee stains. It had travelled hundreds or even thousands of miles before it landed in your hands.

An email arrives exactly as it left.

A letter arrives with a story.

I still have letters tucked away in boxes that are over thirty years old. Every now and then I’ll stumble across one, unfold it and be transported straight back to that moment. I can’t say the same for emails buried somewhere in an inbox with 1,800 unread messages.

Technology has given us incredible ways to stay connected. We can video call someone on the other side of the world in seconds. We can send photos instantly. We can share our lives in real time.

That’s progress, and I wouldn’t want to lose it.

But I do think we’ve sacrificed a little of the human touch in the process.

Sometimes the slow way was the better way.

Not because it was more efficient, but because it reminded us that the person on the other end had invested something you can’t download or automate.

Time.

And perhaps that’s the bit of old technology I miss the most.

Stay safe

Bc