Mother Nature Network asks, “When was the last time you sent a paper greeting card?” Actually, I very often send paper greetings cards—I sent a thank you card last month, a birthday card in July, two birthdays coming at the end of this month, and a wedding anniversary in...oops, two days. Printed cards all. However, I am apparently a rare breed (but then we all knew that):
Hallmark Cards recently announced that is will close the Kansas factory that used to make about one-third of the company's cards, and The Wall Street Journal reports: According to a U.S. Postal Service study, correspondence such as greeting cards fell 24 percent between 2002 and 2010. Invitations alone dropped nearly 25 percent just between 2008 and 2010.
A couple of friends of mine are getting married next month, and their big complaint: how expensive it was to print and mail wedding invitations. Not that they ever will have to do it again (hopefully), but I think we ever get to the point where couples are sending wedding invitations via Facebook then we are definitely looking at the decline of Western civilization.
As I have remarked in this space before, I have never warmed to the idea of e-cards—I think they’re very very cheesy (except for some of the kids’ ones, but even then...) and none I’ve seen even come close to comparing to some of the touching or clever print cards I have sent and received over the years. (I would occasionally send an e-card if I was woefully late, but after Hallmark decided to only sell subscriptions to their-e-card service I stopped that.)
I can buy some of the reasons given for the decline of printed cards, but I think you will have the same reaction to this that I had:
Online greetings are more planet-friendly: Even if you are crafting your greetings from recycled cards, or buying handmade, locally-produced cards printed with soy ink and happen to pick them up when doing other errands, there are still the costs in fossil fuels that it takes to transport a physical card and evelope to your recipient. And if you buy, say, a Hallmark card, you need to add the energy it takes to cut the trees, make the paper, tranport the paper to Hallmark factories, print the cards, and then ship them to my local store (that I likely drive to). Yes, the Internet uses energy, but for a single greeting, online wins the energy-use competition.
As they say, horse hockey. (A single greeting, but multiplied by
x number of people? Recall the
New York Times series that continues to run looking at the price of pixels.) This blog has covered this issue
ad nauseam, so there is no need to dwell on this here. Suffice to say, scream whatever lurid profanity you like. I won’t complain.
Let us consider this:
To those who argue that receiving a (what I see as wasteful) card in the mail, hand-written by the person who sent it is more meaninful, I say that meaning is where you find it. Knowing that my friend took the time to send me a message or choose an e-card, or type a message, as opposed to writing it, is just as meaningful to me.
Even with typos? Obviously, how we choose to be greeted and fêted is a personal choice. I am perfectly happy if anyone remembers my birthday or other events in my life in any medium—but I will prefer to honor those in my life in print. That’s going to have to be OK.
