With the modern correspondence popularity of telephone, mobile phone and Internet, letter writing has been away from us gradually. In exchanges with relatives, the rates for using telephone, mobile phone and Internet are 87.2, 41 and 23.8 percent respectively while only 2.2 percent choose to write letters, according to a sample survey in Shanghai organized by the social survey center of Shanghai-based Liberation Daily and Shenzhou Survey Company.

A relevant analysis shows that ages and academic degrees are closely associated with what means of correspondence people choose.

The lowest rate comes to people below the age of 35 who select writing letters, or even use fixed telephone while it is the highest rate for them to use mobile phones and text messages. The telephone-using proportion of the interviewees above college degree is lower than that of those who have not received higher education, however, the mobile phone and text message are more popular with college graduates than lower educated people. And that is the same story with Internet telecommunication.

Survey shows that 86.2 per cent of the respondents expressed that they cannot be separated from the modern means of communications. Upon asking if you will feel lost when having no telephone calls, cell phone calls and text messages received one day, nearly half of the respondents would say that they will feel lost. As a matter of fact, the sense of loss is formed by our dependence on telephone, mobile phone and Internet. No telephone calls, text messages and emails mean the lack of interpersonal exchanges.

By People's Daily Online