There doesn't seem to be much letter writing going on these days but when I was growing up I used to love writing letters and had lots of penpals. It started when I was probably about 7 or 8 and I wrote to some of the kids who were listed in the Sindy/Care Bears/ My Little Pony magazines I used to get - none of them ever wrote back so no idea if Mum ever sent them for me! But when I reached my mid teens, I started writing to people from all over the world. I had penpals in America, Ghana, France, as well as all over Britain. I got some of them through a Royal Mail's penpal organization called Hola - not sure if it still exists, some through magazine listings, and even a couple from Teletext! One was my best friend for a while and I was even bridesmaid at her wedding. Today I do have one of them on my Facebook but we don't keep in touch very often. maybe because I don't get on FB like I used to. Really ought to change that!
To be honest these days, I feel like the people I connect with on social media because of my blogs are the closest that I have to penpals. It's lovely getting to know someone who lives beyond your neck of the woods who you might not otherwise have connected with, and for me personally, I would definitely love to meet them in person if I ever get the chance. I think so far, I've only met up with one. And I know I'm not the the only one. Some of the people I talk to on Instagram have also said that they've made similar connections. So I suppose this is like penpals but without the letter writing. Did any of you have or still have penpals? Do people even have penpals these days? Or did it go out in the nineties???
Without meaning to sound like an echo, I'm in my thirties and as the thirty-somethings have said, it wasn't really something we did. Perhaps if social media hadn't come along when it did, we all would've discovered the joys of letter writing! LOL! I'm pretty big on Instagram and have connected with loads of people that way, so I suppose for me and my generation, that is how we do it.