E-Commerce Times

Friday, 12 February 2016

Do People Still Send Postcards?

By Jonny Blair


As a child I loved getting postcards and I used to love it. Something colour and from a different land arriving through the letterbox was always more appealing than a brown or white envelope. It just makes you feel so amazing when you are a child dreaming of heading out to backpack your way around this wonderful world of ours.

It was either a postcard from the Netherlands or from London, but I told my Mum I wanted to keep it. For me a postcard is the ultimate travel souvenir. A postcard itself is a journey. It means little or nothing to get an e-mail with a photo on it when you compare it with the journey of a postcard. I fear it's becoming a forgotten art, hence why I still send my family a postcard from EVERY single new place I go.

The last time I visited my family I sought out my travelling postcard collection that I had sent them - mostly to my youngest brother. The collection has now amassed postcards from over 50 countries - hundreds of postcards.

All bought in various shops across all seven continents (yes, I bought and posted a postcard when I was in Antarctica!), then written with details about what I did there at the time, then a stamp is put on them, then I find a post office or postbox and post them. Then the completion of the journey when my family receive the postcard. What an amazing journey.

In a cold hut in Port Lockroy in Antarctica I was able to buy, write and post a postcard from the world's coldest continent all the way to Northern Ireland in the UK. What an amazing travel journey and memory I thought in a world bereft of mobile phones.

Young and new travellers might not remember the era before the internet and mobile phones and they may even wonder why people still bother to send postcards when an e-mail is a lot faster. However it's the real life journey of the postcard and the physical element to it.

What's the difference

1. An e-mail: E-mail v Postcard? I logged on and typed an email and sent it from a computer. I think we all know the answer to that one, at least I do!

2. A postcard: Postcard v e-mail? I bought, wrote and posted this one in Port Lockroy in Antarctica. Thankfully there was no internet around.

Which one would you rather receive?

There you go then - next time you travel - send a postcard!! I still receive postcards from all over the world from my friends and family. It means much more to me than an e-mail.

Don't let postcards become a lost art - keep writing them and posting them from all over the world!




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