Pen Pals in the Digital Age

I love mail. I mean, maybe I love it a little less so now, since I got my first ever speeding ticket a month ago, but I still get a crazy rush of excitement when I see something with my name on it waiting in the mailbox for me. Tearing open an envelope carries the same excitement for me that a six-year-old child feels opening a present on Christmas morning.  Looking to satisfy my love for mail and letters as well as wanting to meet and make friends from all over the world, I began to look into the various resources online to receive a pen pal. 

While it may seem that letter writing would be on the decline with our digital age, that’s not necessarily true. If anything, the internet has offered a new strength to the craft of letter writing. It offers a new, accessible way for people of similar interests all over the world to swap mailing addresses. I was quite shocked by the amount of pen pal websites there out there! However, not all websites are created equal. I have two websites that I recommend for meeting trustworthy pen pals.

The first website, which I can’t recommend enough, is Letter Writers Alliance. Yes, it is a paid membership, but don’t go anywhere! The membership fee is only a one-time payment of $5 USD, and it never expires and is valid for life. I think it’s also worth mentioning that the money wall keeps weird strangers you meet on the Internet away from you—a fact I learned the hard way by using other free-to-use pen pal websites. If you purchase a membership, you can sign up for the pen-pal swap where you are personally matched with two other members. You will receive the mailing address to write the first letter for one person. While for the other individual, they will receive your mailing address, so they write you the first letter. The pen pal swap is simple. All it entails is you filling out an online form with your interests, hobbies, and information, like your gender, age and mailing address. I have met most my pen pals through this website, including people from the United States, Poland, and Sweden, so you stand a good chance of getting matched with someone from across the globe. Of course, it depends on who is available for you to be matched with. The whole mystery aspect of where your pen pal will be from is quite fun, though. I’ve signed up for the pen pal swap twice now, and I’m always excited to see where in the world they could be coming from. It’s also worth mentioning that I cannot understate just how well the match ups for the pen pal swaps are! The pen pals I have met are awesome, and I have lots in common with every one of them.  Another great thing about Letter Writers Alliance is that they offer stationery that any dedicated letter writer would drool over. Their letter writing sets are cute and affordable. They even have letter designs that you can simply print out in your own home. 

You can find Letter Writers Alliance here: www.letterwriters.org

The second website I highly recommend is Postcrossing. It may be a better choice for those who still love to get mail but are maybe too busy to correspond regularly with a pen pal. With this website, you can send and receive postcards from all around the world. How it works is that you request to send a postcard, and you will be given a random address and a postcard ID to write somewhere visible on the postcard. Once this person receives your postcard, they log the ID you wrote on the postcard, which then prompts Postcrossing to forward your address to someone requesting to send a postcard themselves. The more postcards you send the more you will receive in turn. This is a unique way to meet new people over the globe. I made a friend in India who I became pen pals with after I sent her a postcard and realized how much we had in common. Postcrossing itself is so exciting, because the actual process of searching for unique postcards can be an entertaining challenge, and if you don’t want the commitment of writing back-and-forth letters, it’s a convenient yet fun way to get unique mail from all over the world. 

You can find Postcrossing here: www.postcrossing.com

I’m so glad to learn that there are communities out there on the internet devoted to making sure the art of letter writing and snail mail stays alive. It’s so nice to have a physical card you have gotten all the way across the world in your friend’s handwriting. I have even exchanged candy bars and stickers with my pen pals through the mail, not to mention Christmas, Easter, and Birthday cards. I have hopes to someday go abroad, and I have already planned with my pen pal in Poland (Hi, Ola!) to visit with her one day. Trust me, to know that you have friends even in a completely different country is such an amazing feeling to have. 

• mail
• pen pals
• writing