The Evolution of Mail

    As new technologies developed, there was a huge focus on the importance of speedy communication. Communication via mailbox/Post Office became obsolete with the creation of 'e-mail', or electronic mail, which uses the internet to almost instantly send mail.

    E-mail and snail-mail are actually quite similar in that both of them are: Routed through a central server of some kind to reach their destination, returned to the sender if it wasn't able to send correctly, sorted and sent in a similar fashion (i.e. mailbox, inbox, outbox, etc.).

    However, E-mail and snail-mail also differ immensely in some cases.  E-mails that contain the same amount of text as snail-mail can be sent instantly, whereas snail-mail can take days or weeks. E-mails can be efficiently stored in an inbox that takes up little to none of the user's physical space, even with thousands of e-mails, when letters via snail-mail could fill a room.  E-mail can be used to upload or download files or other information, but snail-mail must use physical items, for example; a Polaroid picture in order to send a picture. E-mail can be hacked when snail-mail can only be physically stolen.  Lastly, e-mail can be used to share a single piece of mail to tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. of people quite quickly (within seconds), when the same task would be incredibly painstaking with snail-mail due to needed to write/print multiple letters to send and then send each to the correct addresses.