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Dear Readers: Yes, Pen Pal Programs Still Exist in a Digital World
Programs and apps are finding new life as educators and users seek slower, more personal communication, with Penpalooza drawing more than 15,000 signups in 2020.
- International Pen Friends membership surged during the pandemic and continues rising among ages 21-26, as letter writing experiences a resurgence despite global postal service cutbacks.
- The app Slowly combines modern technology with traditional mail anticipation by delaying digital delivery to mimic snail mail. Cofounder JoJo Chan said this encourages "longer, more thoughtful messages" because users wouldn't just say "hi" waiting days for replies.
- Since 2017, Slowly has gained 10 million users in more than 160 countries, mostly in their 20s and 30s. Separately, the U.S. Postal Service distributed materials to 25,000 elementary classrooms in 2021, while professor Kamran Javadizadeh at Villanova University requires students to mail letters in his literature class.
- Julie Delbridge, president of IPF since 2001, describes writing to pen pals across more than a dozen countries as "a pastime that I totally immersed myself into in a positive way and gained a lot of enjoyment from."
- Gordon Alley-Young, communications dean at Kingsborough Community College, compares letters to vinyl records returning to fashion as young people seek tangible, intentional mediums. Stationery stores in New York City report crowded customer traffic supporting the trend.
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29 Articles
29 Articles
Dear Readers: Yes, pen pal programs still exist in a digital world
In 1985, a 13-year-old girl in New Zealand spotted a pair of purple, lip-shaped sunglasses in “Young Miss” magazine. In March, I traveled 9,000 miles from New Hampshire to deliver them to her, finally fulfilling my pen pal’s decades-old request.International Youth Service, the agency that matched us up 40 years ago, has long since folded, but other pen pal programs have survived — or even began during — the internet age. And even though New Zeal…
·Orlando, United States
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Associated Press News+26 Reposted by 26 other sources
Pen pal programs have evolved, but old-fashioned letter writing could be coming back
A recent trip to New Zealand to visit her pen pal of 40 years made an Associated Press reporter from New Hampshire wonder about the history of programs that bring strangers together to write letters.
·United States
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Total News Sources29
Leaning Left13Leaning Right3Center10Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Left
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left
50% Left
L 50%
C 38%
12%
Factuality
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