Internet stamping out letters
Source: Agencies |
October 4, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE average household in the United States gets just one personal letter about every seven weeks, down from every two weeks in 1987, according to the US Postal Service's annual survey. It is an indication of how the Internet has changed our lives.
The decline in mail, along with an increase in payment of bills online, is hitting the Postal Service hard and it is facing losses of up to US$8 billion this year.
While many people write notes in the holiday and birthday cards they send, the post office doesn't include those in the letter category. However, cards and written invitations, have also gone down.
"One of the ironies for me is that everyone talks about electronic media bringing people closer together, and I think this is a way we wind up more separate," said Aaron Sachs, a professor of American Studies and History at Cornell University. "We don't have the intimacy that we have when we go to the attic and read grandma's letters."
The decline in mail, along with an increase in payment of bills online, is hitting the Postal Service hard and it is facing losses of up to US$8 billion this year.
While many people write notes in the holiday and birthday cards they send, the post office doesn't include those in the letter category. However, cards and written invitations, have also gone down.
"One of the ironies for me is that everyone talks about electronic media bringing people closer together, and I think this is a way we wind up more separate," said Aaron Sachs, a professor of American Studies and History at Cornell University. "We don't have the intimacy that we have when we go to the attic and read grandma's letters."
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