How would you feel if the letter you penned carefully and posted to your favourite star ended up in the recycling bin？ Thats where unopened fan mail sent to singer Taylor Swift was found in Nashville.

Swifts management[管理人员] said it was an accident， but dealing with piles of letters is a burden for most public figures. According to the BBC reporter Jon Kelly， at the height of his fame， Johnny Depp was said to receive up to 10，000 letters a week.

The dawn of the digital age—in which public figures with a Twitter account[帐户] can be messaged directly—has made the process[过程] easier. The White House says it deals with 20，000 messages addressed to President Barack Obama each day.

Some celebrities[名人] dont want letters. In 2008， Beatles drummer Ringo Starr didnt mince his words when he announced he would throw them out because he was too busy.

Others do attempt[企图] to get through it themselves. Robert Pattinson， star of the Twilight films， claims that he reads “tonnes[公吨] and tonnes” of letters from fans.

Many artists， however， outsource the task of opening， reading and replying. Sylvia “Spanky” Taylor， 58， has run a service in California that does just that since 1987. She and her staff deal with up to 20，000 items of mail a month on behalf of[代表] 26 celebrities.

Most letters are simply declarations of affection and admiration， she says. A few ask for money. A small number contain threats which require her to contact the celebritys security team and law enforcement[执法].

The biggest problem for Taylor is working out how to dispose of the correspondence. Presents such as soft toys are sent to local hospitals， and the letters： most of them “just get shredded and recycled.”

Typically， correspondence is acknowledged[答谢] by a photo with a printed “autograph.” For some， this is enough， according to Lynn Zubernis， an expert at West Chester University. She says that the relationship between fan and celebrity may exist only in the mind of the former[前者]， but it comes from a deeply-rooted human need for community[社群].

如果你花了一番心思写了一封信寄给你喜爱的明星，这封信最后却进了垃圾桶，你会有什么感受？一封未开封、寄给歌手泰勒·斯威夫特的信件在（美国）纳什维尔就落得如此下场。

斯威夫特的经理人公司说这是一次意外。但对于大多数公众人物来说，处理一堆堆的信件确实是一种负担。根据英国广播公司（BBC）记者乔恩·凯利的说法，在名气最旺的时候，据说约翰尼·德普每周会收到近一万封信。

数字时代的来临令这个过程变得更简单——人们可以直接给拥有推特账户的名人发信息。白宫说，他们每天要处理两万条写给总统贝拉克·奥巴马的信息。

一些名人不想收到（粉丝的）信件。2008年，披头士乐队鼓手林戈·斯塔尔就直言不讳，声称会把信都扔掉，因为他太忙了。

另一些明星则希望可以亲自看完它们。《暮光之城》系列电影的明星——罗伯特·帕丁森说他会阅读“海量”的粉丝信。

然而，很多艺人将开信、读信和回信的任务外包出去。58岁的西尔维亚·“斯班克”·泰勒自1987年起就在（美国）加利福尼亚开公司，做的就是处理粉丝信。她和员工每个月代表26个名人处理近两万封信件。

她说，大多数信件只是粉丝们在表达他们的倾慕之情，有些会要钱，一小部分信件含有威胁成分。遇到这种情况，她就要联系名人的安全服务团队以及执法部门。

泰勒面对的最大问题是如何处理邮件。像绒毛玩具这样的礼物会被送到当地医院，而对于信件：它们基本上会“被切成碎片，然后回收”。……