Not everyone is dropping the letter-writing habit.
When Cindy Land’s daughter joined the Army recently, the young woman was allowed to call home once a week but she couldn’t text or email.
To keep in touch, mother and daughter began exchanging letters.
“It was a way to visit, and it seemed more personal, knowing that she was holding that letter,” Land, a Findlay, OH, resident, told The Courier newspaper recently.
The Lands join Postal Service employees, artists and young people who are trying to preserve the practice of letter writing.
These efforts might be paying off, according to the Letter Writers Alliance, a Chicago-based organization that matches pen pals.
The alliance has 9,800 members, about twice the number it had in 2012.
Last year, the alliance experienced “a huge surge” in new members between ages 14-20 and 50-70, co-founder Kathy Zadrozny told The Courier.
One possible reason for the spike: Receiving a letter in the mail is an experience digital communications can’t match, Zadrozny said.
“[M]ail is an adventure. You never know what you are going to get in your post box or who will become an integral part of your life,” she said.