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The Current

How holiday newsletters brag about being frantically busy & proud of it

It's the end of the year, and that means your inbox, or mailbox, is likely filling up with annual brag sheets from friends and family. We hear from a professor of communications who's been collecting those holiday newsletters for years ... to study the way we live today....
CBC Radio ·
It's the end of the year, and that means your inbox, or mailbox, is likely filling up with annual brag sheets from friends and family. We hear from a professor of communications who's been collecting those holiday newsletters for years ... to study the way we live today.

Tis the season for family newsletters ... frequently frantic, frazzled updates written by people who seem to take pride in being busier-than-thou. What was once an occasion to step back and take stock of the year has become, for some, a competitive blood sport -- an excuse to throw down the gauntlet in an overwhelming race to exhaustion.

If you're sick of reading about your friends' or relatives' jam-packed lives, Ann Burnett will happily do it on your behalf. Among other things, the communications professor collects people's annual family letters ... and looks at the less-than-flattering picture that emerges from the pile.

Ann Burnett is a Professor of Communications and the Director of the Women and Gender Studies Program at North Dakota State University.


Do you send out year end newsletters to friends and family? Tell us about your Xmas brag sheet that you may write or receive?

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This segment was produced by The Current's Gord Westmacott.

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