Is a Postcard from a Trip Outdated?

A nostalgic view of an old holiday tradition

People used to write postcards on holidays, and I can say for myself that I am still a fan of sending postcards wherever my travels take me across the borders. I always send at least four or five postcards from my trip. It has happened many times, that the postcards did not arrive due to badly organised post-offices or the stamps I had stuck on them were taken away. But they still delight me.

Are postcards outdated in the age of social media?

Do you remember those rectangular little cards, on which you wrote your greetings with a pen, stuck on a stamp and sent them home to your loved ones?

In the age of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and applications, such as WhatsApp, Messenger and Viber, sending postcards can seem completely outdated. Why buy random photographic motifs and spend money on stamps? And then send the card on a weeks-long journey through the post? Especially, since you have the possibility of sending your shots to your friends and family via smartphone in seconds instead. Even more so if you add the climate footprint of the paper card and postage. But still, for me, postcards are inseparably connected to travel.

Of course, I send photos and greetings via smarthphone as well, but no picture that I send on WhatsApp can replace this. Especially in the digital age, when many people say that a postcard is outdated, it has a special meaning to me.

There's no real holiday without a postcard

The whole process is simply a cherished ritual for me, without which my holidays don't feel like real holidays. It begins with picking out postcards in a shop, continues with writing short messages tainted with seawater, and ends with the everlasting question who will arrive home more quickly, me or the postcard? My love for postcards also comes from the fact that I love writing them. I am aware that most people probably look at them differently. What is so fun about sending that same unimportant greeting ten times? Or when you are frantically thinking what you can write other than "Nice weather, wonderful beach, many good greetings from XXX". For me, this is a moment, when I take the time to review my travelling experience and feel thankful.

A part of my love for postcards is also the idea that someone reads my postcard and takes a trip in their mind for a moment. Even though I am aware that most of my postcards have probably ended up in the recycling bin. For me, especially in our fast-paced digital age, they are a material connection between us travellers and those at home, however fake it may sound.

A few days ago, I received a postcard from a friend in Alaska. The photograph's image took my mind for a moment, and I wished I could be in Alaska too.

For me, postcards will always be connected to travelling and foreign places. That is why my friends and acquaintances will always find my postcards in the mailboxes, whether it be from my many trips around the world, or a short trip around my homeland Slovenia.