Postal Mail and E-Mail, What Are The Differences?

It is often said that the advent of web technology in the last decade has made many archaic forms of communications obsolete. Notably, the onset of electronic mail, or E-mail, in the contrast of traditional postal mail. To delve into this further, let us discuss the similarities and differences of the two methods of communication.

Both e-mail and postal mail are essentially a form of relaying information to from one point to another. In other words, both involve sending a message to a recipient. They can contain text, photos, documents, payment bills, or advertisements. They both have a mailbox of some sort, and both have stops on the way to their destination. Both methods have a way of sorting, so postal mail do not contain dangerous substances, and E-mail does not contain any adware. Email and postal mail have many similarities, which should come to no surprise as both methods exist to fulfill similar goals.

Although e-mail was invented to mimic most aspects of postal mail, we should discuss the ways in which the two forms of communication are different. The most obvious difference is that one is digital, while the other is physical. As a result of this, e-mail is far superior to postal mail in terms of speed. Postal mail would require higher costs from the sender to attempt matching the speeds of email, which illustrates another clear difference: money. Postal mail requires the purchasing of postal stamps. Depending on the weight of the envelope and the contents of the message, shipping costs may also apply. Expedited shipping to shorten mailing time may also have applicable costs. E-mail is free, and messages can take between seconds to minutes for the recipient to receive the message depending on the size of the email. Other factors to discuss are e-mails limit the user’s creativity. Arts and crafts can be accompanied with postal mail, but besides a typical HTML e-mail the sender can throw in color and photography which may or may not look as great. We should also consider the geographical limitations to e-mail. Some countries may not have access to a reliable internet connection, so they must rely on postal mail alone.

It is clear that there are similarities between direct mail and electronic mail. Although direct mail has been in a decline partly due to economy, both have their advantages and disadvantages. As the e-mail market continues to be whittled down by spammers, direct postal mail may still be very relevant in the modern world.