The Irony of Saying Goodbye to Greeting Cards

I love greeting cards! For me, it's the same as loving bookmarks. And recently, I have read a very saddening post about it from NY Times.

Yes, yes, we all are in this fast-paced world, that there'd be no room for improvements if we'd rather rely on our sentimental thoughts, but still!

Anyways, imagine the world grows shallower and shallower and saying I love you becomes so virtual. Oh, relationships couldn't get more and more so not-intimate. It is actually what's starting to happen now.

Ever since there had been Facebook greetings on birthdays, I feared that time will come when we would not need to use the greeting cards anymore, and soon, they'll be phased out, and that would be truly truly heartbreaking. Oh no, I was wrong, I sort of predicted this ever since there'd been texting and stuff, and Facebook greetings just made birthday greetings more "non-special".

I have a thing for greeting cards and writing letters, because I grew up receiving different greeting cards. When my dad was alive, he was working overseas as a seaman, and we'd always write each other, him, my mom and us siblings. Whenever the Valentine's day would be approaching, I'd be expecting my greeting card already, or during my birthdays or Christmases.

So, obviously, I grew up writing letters. Been doing that since I can remember. I remember that my mom would write drafts for us, and we would copy them in our gradeschool pads, so it'd be so us writing. I remembered when we already knew how to write, we'd write our dad the newly discovered jokes we have. And having read the letters now (since my dad brought all of the letters home), our letters were so corny and so childish, well that's how it's supposed to be for kids, right?

So the shift from paper to virtual (that I've been preparing for for like years) somehow breaks my heart (though I consider them to be very very helpful eg reports, papers, acad-related, etc). Look the leather-covered diaries of the past became blogs, and there are emails (ha! which is useful though), oh don't forget the photo albums. We are in a bullet train, that the shift could sometimes be unnoticeable, that you'll only notice if you looked hard.

We are not yet saying goodbye to greeting cards so far yet, but from the look of things, we're gradually getting there. Blue Mountain (as was stated from the NY Times article) is on top with their ecards these days. And a lot of other things are becoming e-something.

Greeting cards (sigh)

There's a different kind of feels in receiving and giving greeting cards. Because you'll know that there is a certain extent of specialness in the relationship between the two people who gave and received the card. Why? Because the giver would be making an effort to buy and choose a greeting card, and add up a paragraph or two of message to the receiver. Waaa~ lovely, right? While these days, you can just sit in front of your laptop or whatever computer device you're using and type "HBD! :)" or "Happy birthdayyyyyy!" and post or tweet it. Haaa!

I really like the vintage greeting cards which I didn't really experience. The drawings are intricate and so feminine, though there's some kind of creepiness in them because they're uh old.

But as much as classic things are lovely, the fanciness in modern greeting cards is also not to be dismissed. The bright colors are just so lovely.

And there are also a lot of other ideas incorporated in greeting cards like the greeting cards that have music or tones. Haha~ I've received a lot of singing greeting cards when I was young, and my sibs, too. :))) Lovely. Just lovely.

These wonders! Can we just go and say goodbye to these things that made our special occasions extra special?! So, it's also our fault that there's been a decline in the greeting cards sales, we aren't buying them anymore, well, I do but on special occasions alone. Waah, now, I want to help the greeting cards companies by buying cards every single occasion of the people I love. If that could impede the virtual world of greetings somehow. Haha, idealistic much.

Anyway, I hope well for the next generation but it seems that they'll be missing out so much in life! Ha! But what to miss when you haven't experienced them? It's like how we preferred jeans to frocks now. Haaay.

The changing world is changing rapidly, huh?