Does anyone else feel uncomfortable starting letters with 'Dear'?

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I've been applying for a lot of jobs recently and I feel really uncomfortable with addressing people I don't know, as 'Dear'. Maybe I've read too many Jane Austen novels but it feels false.
I feel like I'm writing from Readers Digest trying to grab false intimacy to claim peoples trust. Does anyone else have this problem? OR does anyone have a different format for writing letters?

― Nellie (nellskies), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:20 (twenty-two years ago)

"OK, try 'Darling'."

― vyvian (mark grout), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:22 (twenty-two years ago)

'Greetings' makes me think of the 'Happy Dude' episode of the simpsons.

― Nellie (nellskies), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:26 (twenty-two years ago)

or Joey at the social in "Bread"

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:26 (twenty-two years ago)

starting emails with Dear seems wrong. starting emails with Hi however, seems ok.

― MarkH (MarkH), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:27 (twenty-two years ago)

No, "Dear" sounds far too 'crawly-bum-lick'

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't really start writing work emails with 'hi' that's not formal enough. Maybe I should just start with pictures of me in the nude. That'll avoid intimacy.

― Nellie (nellskies), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

'Give me some more money'

― mike thecoolperson (mark grout), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

'you bastard'

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:31 (twenty-two years ago)

'boom shankar'

― neil (mark grout), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Ypu'll be saying you feel uncomfortable writing Love at the end of a birthday card yet, because you don't want to have sex with the person (necessarily).

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 27 May 2004 08:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Two options:

(1) If you know the person's name, just drop the "dear" crap. i.e. Mr. Carruthers (for it is usually he) can be address as:

Mr. Carruthers,

I am yet again enclosing my CV in the vain hope... etc etc.

(2) Alternatively, use that old catch-all:

To Whom It May Concern,

although of course that implies you haven't done your research properly and there's a good chance it may end up in the hands of someone so very unconcerned.

If it helps, I always use number (1). But then I've had the same shit job for the last 5 years.

― Huey (Huey), Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:23 (twenty-two years ago)

and end it:
May the seed of your loins be fruitful in the belly of your woman

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:25 (twenty-two years ago)

When addressed to a lady, though, the obverse of the above seems to push the boundaries a little bit.

― briania (briania), Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I've found this formality in emails difficult too, especially when you don't have a specific name to address and hi sounds just too informal so I've started to use 'A Chara' - an Irish phrase which is pretty informal and encompasses fairly much every type of greeting and literally means, friend. Sounds ropey in English and is of absolutley no use to you I guess.

― penelope_111, Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:30 (twenty-two years ago)

In e-mails, I like time-specific greetings - not too formal, not too informal.

"Good Morning", "Good Afternoon", "Good Evening".

You get the drift.

― Huey (Huey), Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I just went through this yesterday. I knew the name of the department I was writing to but not the specific contact, and I didn't want to call a whole department "dear." I ended up saying "attn:" but that feels really impolite.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I start all my formal letters with "Hey, Pussy!"

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, this is a good thread. I always hesitate when I have to write e-mails in English. "Dear..." just feels so wrong and too intimate (I would never write that in Swedish, unless it was a letter to my grandmother or something like that (not that she uses e-mail, but you know what I mean)), I always just write "Hej" (= hi), no matter how formal the letter is. What about "Hello" then? Is that less chatty than "hi"? In English I tend to go with Hueys example of just using their name when possible.

― Hanna (Hanna), Thursday, 27 May 2004 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

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