"What do you take me for?" fumed the man of UrAn important city state in ancient Mesopotamia, located in modern Iraq. . He was chiselling out a clay tablet in cuneiformA writing system used to write several languages in the ancient Middle East. . This is one of the oldest known letters. A complaint to a merchant written 3,775 years ago.

Today, letters may be dying out. The UK Royal Mail has raised prices after the number of letters dropped from 20 billion in 2004 to eight billion this year. In Australia, only 3% of letters are non-business related.

The Persian Queen Atossa posted the first handwritten letter in 500BC. She began a rich tradition of letters: from Saint Paul's epistlesLetters. In the New Testament, some books are epistles from apostles. in the Bible to the love letters of Virginia WoolfAn English novelist (1882 - 1941) whose best-known books include Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse..

The digital age of texts and tweets has replaced the letter. In the US, 37% say they haven't sent one in the last five years.¹

Does it matter? Is there something special about an old-fashioned letter?

The author Edwina Preston thinks so. She says a letter is "a powerful time capsule". She gives some reasons why we should write them:

Rough drafts. Emails are too easily edited. The handwriting and spelling mistakes of a letter remind us of the writer. Well-thumbed letters are treasured possessions and historical artefactsItems made by humans, especially ones of historical interest..

Slow down. Writing, posting and waiting for a reply is a "commitment of time". It shows how much we care about the other person. And it is a chance to slow down and be more mindful of the world around us.

Slice of life. A letter is a mix of everything. In the first known letter by a Christian, a man named Arrianus asks for a recipe for fish sauce. Letters tell historians how people lived.

Shared ideas. They also show us how to live. The ancient Roman SenecaA Roman philosopher.  wrote his philosophy in 124 letters to his young friend Lucilius. These letters have been read and re-read for hundreds of years.

Letters contain personal experiences, like the two billion passed to and from the British trenches in World War One.² Or they can change history, like US president Abraham Lincoln's 1864 letter declaring: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."

Some may outlive humanity. The Voyager spaceship is flying through deep space. Onboard is a "golden record" with a letter for intelligent alien life. Greetings in 55 languages include the English message: "Hello from the children of planet Earth."

Yes: Next time you want to tell someone how you feel or what you have seen or done, grab a pen and write it down. Your personal letter will be a special present that a friend or loved one will keep forever.

No: How you communicate does not matter. Not everyone expresses themselves best through written words and today's technology means we can connect with anyone anytime in so many different ways.

Or... Maybe letter writing is dead. But we can still read the letters of relatives, and famous and ordinary people from history. Their wisdom and experience may change how we communicate with each other.