A few weeks into the semester, I’ve been feeling stressed out about school work and homesick for family and friends. Then I received a notification from the package center that mail had arrived for me. It was a card from my friend, Ali, who goes to school in Louisiana.
That was the first and only letter I’ve gotten since being at school, and I’ve already had six packages delivered from Amazon. As technology eliminates the need to go into physical stores, it also allows us to stop sending physical mail or “snail mail.” But if we do so, we are losing out on an important form of communication.
There has been a 67% decline in first-class single-piece mail between 2008 and 2023, according to the United States Postal Service. First-class single-piece mail includes stamped postcards and letters like the one Ali sent me. In 2023, the USPS delivered 11.8 billion pieces of first-class single-piece mail compared to 21.8 billion in 2014.
Mail in general has been steadily declining since 2006, but personal correspondence has been hit the hardest, says the USPS. By contrast, marketing mail fell 46% from 2008 to 2023.
When I got Ali’s letter, I eagerly tore it open and just the sight of her handwriting brought me comfort as I used to see it every day. I started reading and learned about her experiences at college, hopes for the semester, worries in a new environment and funny stories.
While some could argue that she could have told me all of those things in a text or email, the message would have been different. Conversations in letters are much richer because they require the sender to think more about what they are going to say.
You’re limited by the size of the page so you have to decide what is most important for you to tell the other person. You can’t get an immediate reply either so you may find yourself reflecting on what you wrote days later and wondering how the receiver will respond.
Research shows that when it comes to students taking notes, those who use traditional paper and pen have higher levels of electrical activity across their brains than those who type on the computer. This helps improve their memory. So a handwritten conversation will likely stay with you longer than one that has been typed.
On the other hand, texts and emails encourage quantity over quality. You don’t have to savor them because they are limitless — you can just keep hitting the return key and firing off another one. And they take no more than six seconds to send, according to Australian software company ClickSend.
Messages lose value when you can send them at any time. We become text consumerists because we start sending anything to get a response. It’s no longer essential or important thoughts. Then the receiver has so many messages they can’t or won’t pay as much attention to each individual one. Many of us have had that experience of opening up the phone after a while and it’s full of messages so you can just skim through them.
Mail also creates a physical artifact that you can look back at. Rarely do I ever scroll back through old texts or emails but I have a box at home filled with every card I’ve ever gotten.
There are ones from the day I was born congratulating my parents, cards from my grandparents who have died, letters my friend sent me while we were in COVID lockdown and so much more. Occasionally, I will re-read them and they always bring a smile to my face.
People complain that snail mail is too slow but I look at it as a chance to stop and reflect, something that is becoming increasingly difficult with modern technology.
To me, sending letters is a love language. It takes a lot more effort to send a letter than a text or an email. It shows that someone is going out of their way to stay connected with you. Similar to giving gifts, I think that letter writing makes both the sender and the recipient feel good.
I’m not saying that we should all throw our phones and laptops out the window and exclusively communicate via letters. Electronic communication is a convenient resource to stay in touch with family and friends. But if you have time, I urge you to write a letter to someone you care about — whether that’s a friend who lives far away or your grandmother — and let them know that you’re thinking of them.
