Business Etiquette of the Digital Generation

   I have recently been reprimanded by a former boss about not thanking him/her properly after he/she helped get my current and very exciting job.

   I was very puzzled by this, for I made a point of writing him/her an e-mail literally as soon as the interview was over. I was so thankful for this opportunity and I felt like I expressed that on a very well thought out e-mail. Only to learn, months later, that he/she was expecting a hand written card and flowers.

  Now, here's some important details to this story. I live in a different country than this former boss, I have also just graduated college so it is universally known that I am broke, and to top it all off, I am 22 years old.

  So my question is, when was the last time you hand wrote a letter?

  I could get into the point of how we communicate only electronically now and things lose their values etc. But the point I'm trying to make is that I didn't send them an email because I didn't care, on the contrary, I meant to express my gratitude as fast as I could.

  Is my generation missing all the lessons of business etiquette or have the practices just changed and some people haven't adapted to it? I find it antiquated to send them flowers that will die after two weeks of serving no purpose, but maybe I am in the wrong and should have bough a card, hand written it, then posted it so they could get my thanks 2 to 3 weeks later?

What is your take on this?

M.