What do you think of physical mail?

[wris]

I always enjoy sending & receiving physical mail. I like it when people send me nice messages online, obviously, but there's also something special about getting an actual piece of paper or postcard in the mail.

Any snail mail fans here?

[Guest]

Snail mail has my heart! I would love nothing more than to become pen-pals with somebody, such a fun concept, and one I find I ruminate over a lot...writing at my desk with a good old-fashioned quill and ink, closing the envelope with a fun wax seal; such an idealistic aspiration, at least for now. I've only half the equipment necessary to fully indulge in my desire. :smile: Perhaps that can change soon. I should totally look into it.

Isn't it fun to receive little gifts with your letters every now and again, too? 'Here, take this! I saw it on my rounds and it made me think of you, I hope that it makes you think of me too'. Its rather considerate, right? I know I would dedicate an entire lonesome shelf to all of the quaint objects a pen pal would bring to my doorstep. Ive a soft spot for antiques, so anything from rusty bottlecaps to Victorian cutlery would put a huge smile on my face. Not that Victorian cutlery is necessarily cheap, mind...you can pick up a bottlecap from anywhere, on the other hand, and there's something amusing (and admittedly endearing) about being reminded of a friend by metal amongst grass in a park (even more amusing to pick it up and confuse everyone around you!).

Alas, I have eMail for now, and itll do until I simply cant take it anymore!

[Guest]

I agree with all that has been said here! There is a certain charme that a letter has that an email doesn't. I'd be up for being penpals with anyone here!

[Swiftpaw]

I most likely have dysgraphia so trying to send a written message that's legible is painful and I have bad memories of being forced to write bland thank you letters where I would have preferred to thank someone in person or over the phone, but I love sending packages and I've participated in a few care package exchanges. I'd love to do more.

I've wanted to send packages or letters with little trinkets to my online friends quite a few times, but nearly all of them live in Europe where I love in the US. I'd be interesting in making more friends in the US who want a system pen pal who struggles to write though.

[wris]

If anyone wants to be penpals, I’d be up for it. Happy to send letters from Europe to anywhere! If you want to receive mail from a stranger, I guess DM or email (email address is on the footer of my site) me an address at which you’re comfortable receiving mail from a stranger and whatever name you want written on it. Otherwise I’ll just use your forum username, which is fine by me but you might get weird looks from the people you live with.

I have bad memories of being forced to write bland thank you letters where I would have preferred to thank someone in person or over the phone

I’m sorry to hear that! Even the best things tend to lose their lustre when you’re being forced to do it.

[Guest]

I'd be interesting in making more friends in the US who want a system pen pal who struggles to write though.

What a shame we live outside of the states. :notgood:

[MrsMoe]

I'm rather mixed on the idea of using physical mail again. I do think there's a lot of novelty to it and it'd be nice to have an actual letter to hold and keep (especially if it's from somebody I love), but there are a lot of inconveniences to it. Digital mail is instant, which is vastly more beneficial for communication, and sometimes letters can get lost in the mail. I don't know if I wanna take that risk.

[TheFrugalGamer]

Physical mail can be so much fun! I recently participated in a mix tape swap where a partner and I made mixtape cassettes and then sent them to each other. I also used to use swapping sites to send handmade cards and craft supplies, stickers etc. to each other. I don't have as much time for it these days but it's always fun.

For a community like this I would expect either a sticker exchange or a zine swap would be in keeping with the vibe here.

And yeah, shipping to other countries can get expensive, which is why folks usually like to keep the packages small.

[NullCertifier]

I have a good friend back from my community college days that I used to hang out with. This guy just clicked with me on every level, I think I first really got acquainted with him at a house party where both of our garage bands played. He was both a nerd's nerd and a real rock n' roll party animal. We'd often have this way of combining dumb fun with headier and more intellectual interests. We smoked a lot of pot, drank like we meant it, and played cool nerdy games like MTG and DnD. One time he brought a collection of short stories he had written to pass around between rehearsing songs in a rented practice studio, wish I could find where I left those printouts.

A few years ago, he moved out to Flagstaff, Arizona, where he's been working as a music teacher for a few years. I actually first got the idea to write him as a spin-off from my own journaling. I've started keeping rather extensive handwritten journals since around the middle of the 2010s, and find myself very comfortable expressing my thoughts via pen on paper. I wished I could get the same long-form clarity of thought in interpersonal matters. Texting just feels somehow more impulsive. Out of all my friends, this guy struck me as the kind who would dig the idea, so I wrote him up a couple years back. After ten or so letters and a bunch of new things happening in both of our lives we've fallen off, but it was well worth it while it lasted.

[pleb-hates-the-modern-web]

i love getting physical mail but am so frustrated that it's always spam or advertisements; i've been beefing up my penmanship and am trying to motivate myself to send my friends letters. i think i'd like to have messages from people i love that i can tangibly keep. not to mention the pressure to reply quickly is way lower because no matter how fast i write a response, it will be at least a day before they get it!

it seems so strange now that an email or text is so banal now when i compare it to the prospect of getting a paper letter; i remember being a child rabid with excitement waiting for my aim instant messenger notification to ping, and typing replies as fast as my small hands could manage.

[Skykristal]

I love it but I rarely do it! I mainly did when I was still drawing a lot traditionally rather than digitally. I had a few artist friends who send me letters with art of my ocs and I did the same to them. We also did that on Christmas and birthdays. But that was years a go. I haven't written or sent a letter in forever. All online. But online mail is never the same as physical mail. It gives so much more.

[appleAlc]

I love it, and while I understand the reasons it has fallen out of fashion, I deeply wish for it to come back : (. I've been working on my handwriting becoming more legible, in Latin, Cyrillic, & Arabic scripts, so I'd really love to be able to use that in a way that isn't simply notes for school.

[gridbug]

This is a topic I can absolutely get behind, I love physical mail, corresponding, it is just so much fun 

I have terrible handwriting, and I resent my younger self for not taking penmanship and the cursive lessons I took in second grade seriously because my handwriting is now illegible and I would love to have beautiful handwriting. Maybe over the summer I can practice and sort out all of my bad habits.

I love this claymation indie movie called Mary and Max that is about this sad, lonely girl living in the suburbs Melbourne starting a penpal correspondence with a man in New York City with Asperger's syndrome, and the movie is heartwarming, heartbreaking, adorable, just thinking about it makes me watch it again, it's an phenomenal film. Here's a link to it on Tubi, apparently Tubi is a free streaming service, I haven't used it before but it's the only place that I see streaming it and after some clicking around on the website it seems above board. I watched it on Netflix a while ago when it was on Netflix and it made me cry so do check it out if you like letters and crying : )

The Max in the movie uses a typewriter to write letters, which is in my opinion a nice middle ground between writing by hand and just writing something in a word processor on a computer and printing it out to mail, which works I suppose but it's not as fun, you don't get the romance of clicking keys, or getting to draw little doodles in your letters. I suppose you can after typing them out, I can't justify it there's just a certain something that typing and writing by hand have that comptuers don't for letters. I think it's just that when you're already on the computer writing a letter I can't help thinking to myself this is goofy I can just send this as an email, why am I using a stamp?

Funnily enough Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher, didn't like using typewriters because of how the homogenized writing and limited the creative possibilities of language, and now people are romanticizing typewriters in contrast to computers, and now we're all on a forum reliving the early web in contrast to the alienating wasteland which is modern social media. There's no winning, is there?

[Guest]

I have terrible handwriting, and I resent my younger self for not taking penmanship and the cursive lessons I took in second grade seriously because my handwriting is now illegible and I would love to have beautiful handwriting. Maybe over the summer I can practice and sort out all of my bad habits.

You'll get there. I had extremely sloppy spaghettie writing too but I taught myself to write better and now my cursive is really good!

It only takes a couple months and an hour or 2 a day.

[choiyoona]

I love snail mail!! I'm obsessed with getting and sending out cute letters, they're so fun to make even if I have to battle my dyspraxia to do it B) I'm on postcrossing + sign up for cute mail things as I see them, I'm due to get a candy box from someone soon and I'm very excited >.<;