Email Vs. The Postal Service

Email and the Postal Service, a comparison:

Email has made correspondence between two or more people a lightning fast exchange allowing for pictures, documents, sound files, and many other types of media to be sent.  When we look at email, it's hard to imagine seeing the postal service as a similarly groundbreaking technology in its time.  However, before a government backed postal service, there was no guarantee that someone would get your letter, no way of communicating with others across great distances, and very little interaction with people that were more than a convenient (or inconvenient) horse or carriage ride away from oneself.  The introduction of email is similar to the postal service in that it has opened up a brand new way of interacting with people that are too far away for a powerful shout.  It is easy for us to say that email has just taken everything regular "snail" mail did, and done it better; however, there are some differences between the two forms of communication.  Mail sent through the postal service is often seen as more personal than emails, and physical mail makes it a lot easier to keep a memento or send money.  While email is easier in general, personalized, sincere sentiments are still often sent through the postal service because of these reasons.