I’m late to record this but at the end of January Western Union stopped sending telegrams (it’s probably the best-known remaining telegraph sending organization in the US). It may be there are still lesser-known companies out there sending and receiving telegrams of course. On the face of it the death of telegrams came because they did nothing more efficiently than the alternatives, but this ignores the ritual element. For me the telegram still had a niche as a ceremonial form for sending greetings to weddings - a tradition that will now die out…

I imagine nobody will mourn the impending death of the telex since it lacks a ceremonial function (though for the moment it seems to be alive - you can still send them via email).

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