eCard anyone?

Margie and a were hanging out the other night when my mom poked her head around the corner and asked, “were do I go to send an eCard?” It was my uncle’s birthday and with all good intention my mom wanted to send along a quick congrats via email. It’s been like this for a while, but it seems like the eCard has become the standard recognition of thanks or congratulations for that special someone who you just didn’t have the time to sit down and write. The more I think about this the more the entire standard of card-giving upsets me.

Looking back even further, how did a folded, often witty, piece of 8″x10″ come to represent the gamut of greetings, thanks, congrats, and all other kinds of emotions that people exchange? I remember the looks that I would get when I would be seen throwing out the stack of birthday or Christmas cards I had received only a few days before. “I read them already,” I would pronounce. But this simple, logical explanation did nothing to refute the disapproval.

The idea of a greeting card in it’s essence is absolutely brilliant. How many times have we all received a card (or email) with a simple, mass produced message intended to convey sentiment from the sender? In a way, this is capitalist efficiency at it’s finest. Millions of “happy birthdays” are exchanged each day and all greeting cards do is capitalize on the want of the masses to express this in a unique way. Why have everyone one produce their own “happy birthday” when you could mass produce this message and spare the consumers’ the time and effort to think of a creative message on their own? Brilliant.

I guess all I’m trying to say is the obvious; a simple thought out note to convey emotion is so much more meaningful than a mass produced market variety greeting, a paper greeting is more thoughtful than one constructed of bits and bytes, and if you must eCard, eCard with someecards.com.

someecards.com - “When you care enough to hit send.”