I used to love getting email greeting cards.

And they were very handy in the sending department too:

• those “almost forgot” birthday greetings, when the regular post is going to be too late
• people you like but are not so close that you want to set up an obligation to reciprocate with posted cards for birthdays, Christmas, Hanukkah, or other festival
• when you want to send someone something just for fun, with the lightness of touch that comes of it being bits, not atoms

photo from everystockphoto

Sadly, I suspect that the days of sending and receiving email cards might be numbered.

That’s to say, judging by the deluge of email greetings I’ve been receiving lately, purporting to be from:

• a friend
• a former schoolmate
• a “mate” (the Aussie touch – hmmm)

How boring, that something which has probably done a lot of good for countless people and kept many connections alive or revived old connections may now be so discredited by the spammers that it will be on the way out.

Now what was that system we used to use in the olden days? An envelope? A card or a sheet of paper?

The postal services will be pleased – that is, unless the ease of email card-sending has made us just too lazy to use the paper version and find a postage stamp.

Whose day could you brighten with an old-fashioned greeting card, or just a note of friendship, with an envelope, and a stamp, and even “SWALK” on the outside of the envelope?