What happened to the importance of a handwritten note? Somehow the idea of taking the time to write with our hands seems to have lost its appeal. As we increasingly rely on BlackBerrys, e-mails, text messages, PowerPoint presentations and computer-generated documents, I find that a day or two can go by when I haven’t actually handwritten something … anything. (Frankly, I would have preferred sharing this article with you in my own handwriting, but I was told that wouldn’t be an option.)

I remember receiving letters from my grandfather and admiring the uniformity in his carefully orchestrated and evenly spaced letters, one flawlessly flowing into the other. I miss them. I miss not getting handwritten letters. I miss the personalized appeal, the time people took to write, the thought that went into it and the sentiment you could feel through it.

Thanks to electronic greeting cards, we no longer have to take any time at all to express our sentiments in writing – those sentiments come pre-packaged, and with a few clicks, off they go into another person’s inbox. Thanks to e-mail, we can now very efficiently send messages in mass distribution to a multitude of recipients, instead of uniquely crafted responses, one person at a time.

I attribute this cultural shift not just to technology, but also to the desire to do things faster. Getting it done becomes more important than the means we choose, end product takes precedence over process, and standardizing to save time takes priority over customizing to create uniqueness.

In our world, even the phrase “dot your i’s and cross your t’s” has taken on a whole new meaning. Whatever happened to the literal meaning of that phrase? Let’s actually take the time to dot our i’s and cross our t’s.

Having a youngster, I worry that we may be raising a generation that doesn’t realize the value of a handwritten letter or doesn’t even recognize the importance of good handwriting. As a kid, I remember taking “handwriting classes” that were deemed as important as any other coursework, teaching us to make our t’s and g’s of a specific length and in a certain manner. I not too fondly remember my teacher making me write each letter again and again, and yet again, until they painfully became the norm in my daily written verses.

I’m saddened at the thought that this generation may not have the same appreciation for writing a note, for putting their emotions down on paper, one word at a time. Instead, we witness the rapid exchange of text messages and Internet chats, reflective of an era obsessed with convenience and impatient for the immediate gratification of a quick response.

Not that I am advocating we put away our BlackBerrys and turn off our computers. All I’m suggesting is that we occasionally grab a pen and write a card to a friend, a note to a colleague or an essay on our thoughts. Yes, e-mailing may be more convenient, but let’s not lose sight of the process, the detail, the presentation.

A handwritten note DOES count for something. If that message is lost on us, what can we expect from future generations?

Mashal Husain is manager of business development and strategic planning at Blank Children’s Hospital.