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Is snail mail dying?

I wonder how many people still write letters these days? Since the birth of the Internet, I think the art putting pen to paper is slowly dying. I have been penpalling for about 20 years now, and have penpals all over the world – Australia, Canada, Austria, Germany, USA and the UK. What I particularly enjoy about writing letters is how the thought that someone has put pen to paper and stuck a stamp on the letter and it arrives through my letterbox. Some of the letters I receive are very pretty too. I receive letters written on pretty paper with pictures on it and with stickers all over the envelopes. And more often than not, I like to keep the stamps too. With website such as Facebook and Twitter, and with email too, it’s got all to easy to send and receive everything instantly.

But isn’t it nice when you get a letter through the letterbox? I remember years ago when we used to go on holiday and send postcards. On the back of the postcard you’d get a short message on the back telling you that they were having a wonderful time and the weather is lovely. More often than not though, the postcard would arrive after the person had returned home from their holiday lol. But in all seriousness, it’s sad that the traditional way of sending hand-written letters seems to be dying a death. Don’t get me wrong, I think people do still write letters, but not half as much as they used to years ago. I know from my penpal hobby that lots of people still write letters on a regular basis. But in this day and age and everything being so instant, I certainly feel that handwritten letters is slowly becoming a thing of the past.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for change and I’ve embraced the Internet and social media as much as the next person. I am active on many platforms. But on the other hand, I still like to send and receive hand written letters!

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What do you think?

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10 Comments

  1. I remember when I was a kid my father put a message from me in a bottle and dropped it from his fishing boat off the coast of Nova Scotia. Three months later I got a letter in tje mail from the boy who found it on a beach in Maine. That was my first penpal. Three years later my cousin Martha sent me a perfumed letter from Garden City Michigan. We corresponded all through grade school and high school. Paper letters make great memories.

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  2. As long as there are people like you who enjoy a physical letter, that format will never die. USPS still has to send you bills, right? So that service will never be discontinued, but will possibly go underutilized…

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