Letters extinct in digital age
In the old days, it went something like this: personal letter, electric bill, L.L. Bean catalog.
Now, it goes like this: credit card offer, credit card offer, L.L. Bean catalog.
About the only thing that made walking to the mailbox in any way an anticipated experience, a hand-addressed envelope from a friend or relative, has largely vanished.
In the age of ubiquitous personal computers, BlackBerrys and PDAs – that’s personal digital assistants for the technologically unfamiliar – such communications are most often digital and rarely on paper.
And to make matters worse, the volume of so-called standard mail, including catalogs and other advertising, is on the increase.
“Our research shows that personal correspondence has been declining for about 15 years. Personally, I think it’s a tragic loss. I enjoy getting a letter,” said Gerry J. McKiernan, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.
“In your mail on any given day, if there is a personally addressed letter, it’s either the first thing you open or the last. It’s never in the middle. It’s the last if you hold off because you want to savor it,” he said.
Postal Service research found that the average household now receives just one personally addressed letter a week, including such things as holiday cards and wedding announcements, McKiernan said.
“However, the decline didn’t start with the Internet. We track the beginning of it to the decrease in the price of long-distance phone calls,” he said.
According to the Postal Service, first-class mail, including personal letters and bills, peaked in 2001, when there were 103.6 billion individual pieces delivered. In 2006, there were 97.6 billion pieces delivered.
