Do People Still Send Postcards?

By Jonny Blair


I used to love getting postcards through the letterbox as a child. It was one of my first childhood memories and I got excited seeing postcards. A shiny, colourful postcard will always be more exciting to a child than a brown or white envelope coming through the post.

That postcard was from possibly Holland or maybe London, I can't remember exactly but I kept it. Postacrds are the best and ultimate travel souvenir! Postcards tell a journey for themselves. These days getting an e-mail or a photo from a friend travelling will never mean as much as getting a postcard, which has been on a travel journey of its own. Hopefully postcard writing and sending is not becoming a forgotten art.

When I visited family last I found my travelling postcard collection - the collection now contains over 100 postcards from over 50 countries. Amazing journeys for these bits of card.

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.

Find the difference

1. E-mail: E-mail v postcard. So I logged onto the internet and sent a quick e-mail.

2. Postcard: Postcard v. e-mail? A real life physical postcard is bought, written and posted. You don't even need internet access!

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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