Email versus the Postal Service

Growing up, there was so much suspense waiting for the mailman to come to our street. It only comes once a day and than usually disappoints. It's more of a long waited for event and than a service for communication. For me, email has so much more to offer as a tool in our lives, than snail mail does. Email is at your command and works so much more efficiently. As Americans, we want things done as quickly as possible. So waiting three days for someone to receive your letter just seems absurd. There are a lot similarities though despite the few, but drastic differences.

Similarities

• The mail box, it's virtual of course, but it's an inbox none the less.


• You have a key to get into your P.O box and you also have a password to get into your account.


• Junk mail


• You can send and receive letters, e-invites, pictures and movies.


• Coupons


• Address and return address


• Envelopes that you open.


• Time and date

There are two big differences between the two services, they are cost and speed. While you pay for a computer and Internet service, you don't pay for each individual email. It also takes less than a minute for your email to reach the person your sending it to. Where as the postal service takes a couple of days to a week depending on where it goes. Plus the cost of shipping and stamps. So those are the two big differences, but there are some other differences that will keep the postal service up and running.

Differences

• Packages, you can't send care packages or Amazon purchases, through email.


• Company's use the postal service for bills.


• Weight, even though emails take up memory in your account, the cost does not depend on the weight of the mail.


• Cost


• Speed

There was an episode on South park once where the Internet stopped working and everyone started panicking. I think without the Internet or technology, people think communicating comes to a halt. That's true to a certain extent, but when I graduated from high school and sent out around 60 invitations, a lot of people sent money back with a congradulations. You can't do that with email. I also think that there is certain etiquette rules that apply with invitations and really important letters. There's a certain quality to real piece of paper versus an email. While we rely so much on email, it's amazing what the postal service can do for us despite the cost and time it takes.