Preventing mistakes

I recently heard about applications cell phone users can program to prevent them from calling or texting certain people when they're drunk. Apparently this is a problem for some people, and the "Bad Decision Blocker" or "Don't Dial!" prevents the partier from calling old boyfriends/girlfriends, leaving stupid messages on your boss's phone, accidentally sending inappropriate text messages to your mom.

I guess bad decision phone calls were always a possibility in the past, but maybe the process of finding a quarter and a pay phone was enough of a delay to stop most of those phone calls.

And, for years now people have had issues with e-mails mistakenly sent to the wrong person.

It seems to me, that letter writing prevents many of those mistakes. Samara at the Letter Lover blog recently wrote about "unsent letters," letters she's writing with no intention of sending. The letters serve as a form of therapy for her, allowing Samara to get some things off her mind without getting involved in another argument or discussion with the recipient.

Samara doesn't say what she does with her unsent letters. Maybe she stores them away, maybe she burns them, maybe she shreds them. No matter what, she doesn't send them. No need for a "Bad Decision Blocker" in this situation. She has time to think about what she's doing and come up with a plan.

I suppose there have been cases of drunken letter writing and mailing in history, but I doubt it's ever been as much of a problem as drunk texting is. I've never heard of a proposal to put a breathalyzer on a mail box!

This is Card and Letter Writing Month, so let's all write a letter or two!