Yesterday the local postal carrier left a card in my mailbox. It informed me that due to declining mail volume there would be changes in delivery times. The message  blamed the drop in mail volume on the currently poor economy. Huh? Does the post office have their head in the sand? Why would I spend 44 cents for a postage stamp when I can send an email for free including spell checking and immediate delivery. Declining physical mail volume may be a fact but another fact is the ever increasing use of social networking sites on the Internet. In today’s world we post on MySpace, blog,  and tweet on Twitter. Some of us have replaced paper greeting cards with electronic greetings. Have you noticed that the greeting card sections in supermarkets and drugstores are getting smaller?

It is not difficult to remember many technologies and services that were once considered “modern” and are now very obsolete. While we can sympathize with postal workers who may lose their jobs but is doubtful that this will motivate us to mail more letters.  The cost of postage is no longer a topic of conversation since few people depend on it anymore. At a recent dinner the guests were more appropriately discussing their Internet connection speeds and that’s a topic for another article!