Human communication through the simplest of means such as greeting cards seems to have changed so much. While it has been traditional to have greeting cards with the manually designed beauty on papers to today’s where all it takes is the click of a button. The following article traces how greeting cards transitioned from their paper-based formats, to the current digital formats of the cards, with guiding technological developments.
The Paper Era: A Tradition of Handcrafted Greetings
For centuries, greeting cards became the embodiment of feelings that people can send to each other in surprise, as a sign of appreciation, as a merry wish. Greeting card has evolved with time, they were initially hand-made and some of them contained short elegant remarks written on papyrus or parchment. As the technique of paper manufacturing was advanced, greetings card also got more sophisticated in terms of design, illustration and ornaments.
Greeting cards became a trend in the Victorian age as is evident in the following passage. In this period, the cards were perfectly fancy with messages of sentimentality and deCorations of refinement. The easily availability of cheap paper and advancement in technology also brought in cheap greeting cards within the reach of so many people.
The Technological Transition: From Postcards to Electronic Greetings
Some of the developments brought about by this phase of the Industrial Revolution include the following in the greeting card production. The development of the printing press provided means for making copies of greeting cards, so they could be at the price where anyone could afford to but them. New forms of sending greetings such as post card developed at this period being convenient to use. The use of postcards represented a less personal writing surface than letters and the postcard designs were often printed in advance thus convenient for use and posting.
The modernisation of the world and more specifically the start of the digital age all begun in the 20th century. With the advent of computers and the internet in the recent years there was the possibility of sending greetings electronically. The first types of electronic greeting cards where just plain message sent in a plain-text style email. With the development of technology, more and more computers, graphic images, sounds and moving animations were embedded into the cards.
The Rise of E-cards: A Digital Revolution in Greeting Cards
Specific Internet-based e-card services appeared only at the beginning of the years 2000. These online platforms provided a wide selection of computerized greeting cards to suit the different occasions; they may be themed or otherwise. E-cards, as a mode of conveying the message, was more convenient and ecological than the conventional paper cards. Readers could therefore explore through numerous designs, edit messages and deliver cards directly to emails of the recipients.
People have embraced e-cards to the extent that such aspects like increased use of smart phones and adoption of digital communication came into the forth. People needed to create E-cards and such opportunity was much more interesting and entertaining than paper cards. This way users could include personal material such photos, videos and personal messages to the e-cards, which made them unique and memorable.
The Impact of Social Media and Mobile Apps
The coming of the social networks and instant messaging applications also affected the methods in which people wish each other. Page-based social media sites added the e-card components where people can easily send cards to their friends and followers. People could now get to easily get their hands on their mobile devices and browse and send e-cards to their near and dear ones.
The Future of Greeting Cards: A Blend of Tradition and Technology
As for the e-cards, although they are enjoying a great demand and usage, the conventional greeting cards especially the paper ones, remain close to ones’ heart. There is a kind of romantic feel in getting something hand-delivered in a card form with nice and warm emotions. It would therefore be expected that greeting cards will always be in existence as either physical or electronic depending on the needs of the users.
All in all, the evolution of greeting cards from hand-made paper products to computer generated and/or encoded messages has been as a result of a technological factor. Social media in particularly have shifted from the use of paper to pixels and the way individuals interact as well as convey feelings. These aspects are quite encouraging and make one look forward to the future of greeting cards and how they will transform from time to time to mark other incidents of joy.
