Situation: A good friend or neighbor or ex-girlfriend is going to move away. You say your goodbyes, and they promise that they will write to you after they move.
But then they never do. In fact, you never hear from them again.
Why do this seem to happen so often?
Because they’re jerks.
Moving is a difficult experience. You’re moving on to a new life, and part of that entails making new friends, and getting into your new environment. Trying to maintain “old” relationships can seem fruitless, because no matter how close you once were, the distance has changed everything. You tend to drift apart, because you don’t have that day to day interaction. It’s all a part of growing up, and unfortunately, that means growing away from old friends, but new friends fill that void very quickly.
Or maybe they’re just jerks…
I vote for your second.
Who else is with me?
Me
Me two
Me three
Kinda like, “I’ll call you!”
Oooooooooooooo. Someone’s been shunned lately.
Xavier: 
Blalron, seriously, it easy to mean to write to someone, and just not get round to it for a couple of weeks, and then it drifts off. They’d probably be pleased to hear from you, (though it sounds like you don’t have the new address) but aren’t organised enough to write to eveyone they’d like to. Whether this means they’re jerks or not I’ll leave to Xavier.
BTW I’d consider some online contact - occasionally this is easier to do than letters.
Maybe they’re just busy. But a “good friend” would keep in touch. IMHO
For me it has to do a lot with what to write. When confronted with a blank piece of paper, it is difficult not to think to yourself why anyone would care about whatever it is you are writing. This doesn’t happen in conversation because you get clues as to whether or not someone is interested.
This happened to me when a friend moved to Europe. I didn’t write at all for the first few months, since nothing really interested had happened. Then I figured I would write whatever crossed my mind, and just tell her about my life and what I did that week, etc. We developed a great correspondence after that and after a while it became like an addiction. I could see what they were talking about in old movies and books about long distance relationships by letter, but I could never get it before.
I thought this was going to be a thread on why people always say they plan to write a book and never do.
Most people aren’t good writers (or they think they suck at it). And they get busy. I always write back if someone writes to me, but sometimes I’m not good at starting the exchange.
What gets me are the people who go out of their way to exchange addresses, email or otherwise, phone numbers, etc. And then don’t write back. Hey, I’m fine with the fact that you don’t want me in your world, but just don’t make me think that you give a damn. (what? bitter? ME? Never.)
SwimmingRiddles: Ditto.
You have to keep every kind of contact for people. Mailing address, home phone, mobile phone, cell phone, pager, 800 collect number, work phone, work extension—and you can’t get them at any one of them! Website for work, work e-mail, personal e-mail, eleven-digit zip code. -> With all this they do not write and don’t even e-mail.