Las Vegas Weekly

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Twitter and Facebook lit up last week when the U.S. Postal Service announced it would cut off Saturday letter delivery (package delivery is safe for now) to save $2 billion.

But given the priorities of the average American, I wondered how the reaction’s magnitude would compare to the Super Bowl blackout or anything containing the word “Bieber.”

Searching top tweets for #usps yielded a sweet sentiment from comedian Paula Poundstone: “I’ve never carried an email close to my heart. I like the USPS.” Retweets: 81. The top tweet for #saveusps came from a guy named Zach Green: “The USPS has the largest union in America and is being forced into bankruptcy by the House GOP. Coincidence?” Retweets: 803. But a tweet on the Super Bowl blackout by @TheIlluminati, insinuating that the secret society was in cahoots with Beyoncé, got nearly 2,000 retweets. Wah-wah.

And what about Facebook? The official USPS Facebook page has more than 66,000 likes, and its original bombshell about the delivery change has 908 likes, 818 comments and 3,620 shares. Justin Bieber has more than 51 million likes, and a post telling beliebers to tune in for his SNL hosting gig has 116,383 likes, 7,725 comments and ... only 1,076 shares. Ha! The Postal Service does matter!