One of my favorite pastimes is joining random Facebook groups. One such group was for people who wanted to meet and start writing to a pen pal. The idea was to make a post describing yourself and your interests for people to comment on if they wanted to connect. This fascinated me, mostly because letter writing has been exceedingly obsolete in the past few decades. In my mind, having a pen pal wasn’t something I thought people were doing. Yet in this group of 109 thousand people, the art has flourished and become something that is a way to build new relationships.
The term “pen pals” first emerged in 1931, shortly after the term “pen friend” appeared in 1919. However, this was just the creation of an official term for what people had already been doing for centuries. Some of the most famous pen pals include J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, Catherine the Great and Voltaire, and Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.
Human connection is something that is the cornerstone of everyday life. It is important
This is especially evident in a post Covid society, where the effects of social isolation are especially evident. There is a desire for authenticity, but often a great deal of skepticism is involved as well. For some people, it is much easier to be vulnerable in the act of writing.
Letters represent something much more personal than a text or DM from a friend. It shows you spent the time to sit down, write what you wanted to say, buy a stamp and send it. This makes it much more of a commitment. We as humans are so used to receiving the things we desire instantly that it can be difficult to have the capacity to sit and wait.
Bailey Soard, a senior here at Asbury, has sent letters to six different pen pals over the years. She is still communicating with one of them, whom she has been sending letters to for four and a half years. Because of a program at her school, some of these were from different Spanish-speaking countries, where they would write letters in Spanish and receive letters in English.
“All of my pen pals that I keep up with more frequently are younger than me, but they don’t live super far away. Kids and younger people you can mentor find getting mail really fascinating.” Soard says about her experience. There is also an excitement in getting mail that is enjoyable, rather than bills or advertisements.
The desire for pen pals has grown immensely in the past few years. The United States Postal Service’s website says, “In fact, Google Trends data shows that searches for ‘snail mail clubs’ in 2026 skyrocketed by over 5,000% compared with the prior year.” It is a response to digital fatigue and a callback to a time when letters were a way of life and information moved more slowly.
Whether it be for mindfulness or for building a new relationship, the act of writing letters deserves its continued growth in popularity. Soard says, “It’s a good way just to build a connection outside of the regular phone calls and texts.” Pen pals combine the warmth of human connection with a tangibility that digital media cannot provide.
