Are stamps still used to send mail?

Yes, they are. However, more and more countries are starting to print labels instead of using stamps when you go to the post office.

Stamps have a strong role as flag-bearers of national identity.

“It’s true that young people don’t write letters or really know what stamps are, and that, generally speaking, stamp collecting is for an older generation that is slowly dying out, so far fewer people collect stamps nowadays than they did in the past,” says Douglas Muir, senior curator of philately at The Postal Museum in London. “But people are still extremely honoured if they appear on stamps, and you get far more publicity about stamps in newspapers these days than you ever used to.”

Nowadays, it seems that is a lot about the money, as there seems to be a trend for producing stamps deliberately with collectors in mind, for example Star Wars or Harry Potter stamps.