Literally the same way with ham radio... We have three purposes, in order of importance: Emergency and disaster services, talking about our radio equipment, and talking about the weather (sometimes in great detail). See also: farmer Joe in Arkansas got his kidney removed, ed in Tennessee finally fixed his motorcycle, and the Smith Brothers went to Hawaii to make a Morse contact with Japan.
There's a few people keeping the practice alive, like Global Penfriends and etc. I don't know how many choose to use snail mail for it, but I know of people who for various reason enjoy physical correspondence. Probably most pen pals are using email these days -- although that's getting a little archaic now, too!
I have elderly relatives an ocean away from me and they absolutely refuse to text, so we talk via email. It's kind of like having a pen pal, sort of.
