By Keyboard or Ink: Handwritten Letters versus E-mail Historically, handwritten letters were the only reliable form of communication between two people in different places. It did not take long for the handwritten letter to be rendered obsolete by the convenience of the e-mail. For years, the e-mail has dominated as the principal medium for sending letters. With the introduction of the Internet, handwritten letters became impractical to some. However, with e-mail as the primary form of letter communication, the differences between the two are often put into question. It was not long after the e-mail took over, that people began to realize the lack of personalization and intimacy. While currently the two mediums balance each other, each has a different approach to personalization, convenience, and functionality. The Internet is arguably the largest technological advancement in the history of human evolution. It brought a number of new and innovative means of communication. Among them the e-mail, one of the most, if not the most convenient method of sending and receiving letters ever. E-mail is practical and known for being extremely fast. Providing there is Internet connection, almost immediately messages can be sent to and read from anywhere without fees or limitations. A handwritten letter requires postage and a timeframe of days, even months to arrive at its destination. The most expedient aspect to e-mail however is its functionality. Developments in technology have made e-mail accessible from almost all everyday devices, including: computers, cell phones, tablets, entertainment systems, and gaming consoles. Simply, any device that holds an Internet connection is capable of composing an e-mail. And with no paper wasted during the composition of an e-mail it acts as an environmentally sound solution to wasting paper.

Personalization remains one of the most important aspects in letter communication. Aside from the actual content of the message personalization allows for the recipient to get an understanding of who the sender is as an individual. Handwritten letters may be less convenient then email, however they will always allow the writer to reflect their character. Although e-mail enables personalization in the form of customizable colour options, and even emotional animated figures, nothing surpasses originality of red and green cursive in the neighbor’s