E-mail vs. Post-mail

So we talked a little about similarities and differences of e-mail and post-mail in my Living and Working in a Virtual World class. Obviously, both are used to send something to your desired destination. Technology has been and still is growing today. Many would say that using E-mail is more convenient than having to write a hand-written letter but even so, many people still go to the post office to send their mail.

Nowadays, almost everyone has a computer. Those that have a computer, usually have an e-mail account or 2 ... or 6. It's amazing how advanced the internet has gotten and how you can send a 100 word letter to someone across the globe in a matter of seconds. That is what most may consider the biggest difference of e-mail and post-mail; the speed. If you have a friend with a birthday coming up, you can send him/her an email and they will most likely get it right when you send it but if you want to write them a hand-written letter, you would have to send it days or maybe even a week in advance. It even costs money to send the hand-written letter while it is free to send an e-mail (if you don't consider the cost of your internet bill -_-). So why would anyone want to go out of their way to write a hand-written letter when you can just e-mail? Well obviously, not EVERYONE has an e-mail but if they did, would they prefer an e-mail rather than a letter? E-mail can be risky as it can give your computer a virus. Opening a letter wouldn't have risks like opening an e-mail does.

Personally, I would rather receive a hand-written letter from someone rather than an e-mail. Like I said earlier, it is more time consuming and costly to send a letter compared to sending an e-mail, so the person who sent it obviously took the time and care to send ME a letter rather than just typing out some words. I would consider e-mailing more like instant-messaging rather than comparing it to sending letters from the post office. Hypothetically, if I never heard of e-mail or post-mail and someone described the similarities and differences between them to me, I would probably choose to use e-mail. You just have to experience receiving both an e-mail and post-mail and see how you feel. Everyone has their own opinion but if I received a hand-written letter from a friend that I haven't heard from in a while, I would feel much happier compared to receiving an e-mail from that friend.