I have a proper penpal and two friends whom I only ever contact by means of writing (old teachers from school, hence my not calling them penpals - it just wouldn't seem right). I used to write to my proper penpal much more often, but now I write to all of them approximately four times a year (Christmas, Easter, beginning of summer, end of summer). I also have another ex-teacher friend (well, he still teaches, just not me) whom I contact by email, and in practice I probably send him six-ish emails a year, so eally he's not doing much better. I think the key to how often I write lies in the time I can be bothered spending on these things, and though I ticked the email causation box, I think that has much less to do with it than the time factor.

I admit, though, that I have more trouble writing anything by hand (except notes and lists) now that I use a computer so much. Writing seems slow and my brain has started to assemble words based on a qwerty keyboard.