Basic Communication Skills

As a kid we used to write thank you letters for presents received at Birthdays and Christmas. Letters followed a certain format.

We also used to write postcards from holidays to family and friends. Concise formulation was required given small space available.

Then I remember having a girlfriend, to whom I wrote lengthy letters expressing feelings and recounting acrtivities ( more of the activities and less of the feelings actually )  Then another girlfriend. There were also some penfriends along the way.

These writing activities helped develop a flow of conversation and an approach to making friends. Perhaps this is an important skill that could be revived, with the help of older people as penfriends. Use the new technology, but retain the old forms of politeness and structure ? 

This might enable people to connect better, and to have more meaningful contacts and then deeper friendships in todays often fast paced frenzy of messages and phone calls... 

Something for the communication coaches out there to look at? Writing a personal letter in an English course, as against writing a business letter.