Consider Snail Mail

Many of us have found friends on the Net. Virtual friendship is not stupid or harmful, provided it’s genuine friendship. The nice thing about the Net is it helps us find likely friends due to the grouping of interests, not some random accident of geography. It’s a good thing, provided you take full advantage of it.

But I’m not entirely sanguine about the future of the Net as we know it. Unrestrained surfing has already disappeared in some places, and threats of the same are invading Western nations. Further, economic instability and disruptions could easily close down a wide range of companies providing infrastructure. Sudden changes in utility rates could price us all out of the market for home connections. There is a wide range of uncertainties which could affect what we do real soon.

Now would be a good time for virtual friends to begin exchanging snail mail addresses and phone numbers.

Granted, a great many Net friendships depend on the Net for most of their meaning. You are the only one who can decide if there really is a need to keep in contact with anyone under other circumstances. I have a link to my resume from my “About” page, so readers should have no trouble getting mine; for your own sanity, you should shorten the name shown there. You’ll find an email address there, too, so you can send me yours if you think it’s worth the trouble.

It won’t be any more secure than email, in the sense if anyone is really trying to keep an eye on you, they can easily intercept your paper mail, too. That isn’t the issue. Aside from exchanging encryption keys physically, or exchanging a set of one-time pads and a common dictionary, or some other method like those, there is little you can do to keep communications secret any more. The idea is not entirely the issue of privacy, but an exchange of information by alternative means. That’s how you’ll decide if it matters, when you consider whether the exchange currently taking place on the Net is worth the trouble of printing and mailing.