For over two centuries, since Benjamin Franklin appointed the first Postmaster General in 1775, the US post office has been the leading way for Americans to connect with loved ones by written note. That was until 1971, when Ray Tomlinson, an American computer program sent himself the first email with the uninspiring message "QWERTYIOP."
Since then, email, text, social media, and thousands, if not millions, of other digital mediums have slowly, than quickly replaced the centuries old medium of hand written letters. So, is snail mail going away for good? Not at all likely.
Every day over 472 Million pieces of snail mail are delivered by USPS employees to citizens around the country, and the trend is hardly slowing. According To Candace Ackerly from www.wholesalegreetingcards.com a greeting card wholesaler "tens of thousands of businesses like ours rely on snail mail to deliver greeting cards for products like ours. Without snail mail we couldn't get our greeting cards out to subscribers because companies like Fedex and UPS don't offer a competing service" According to Candace, subscribers still love to send greeting cards because of the personal touch digital media cannot provide.
Wholesalegreetingcards.co is not alone, even mega companies like Amazon.com depend on USPS to deliver packages to the furthest regions of the country where private companies cannot deliver to because of financial restrictions.
So is snail mail going obsolete? No. While new methods of communication will continue to expand our capability to communicate with each other it is very unlikely anything will replace the long standing tradition of sending handwritten letters to loved ones across the furthers regions of the country.