Write any card lately?

Last week, prior to New Year’s eve, I received a Christmas Card from Alexa, my cousin who resides in Switzerland. It’s a hand made one, with blue color and silver ornaments. Then, I flipped the card and read, “Best Wishes For A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”. If you read it from your screen, there’s nothing new right? You’ve read it thousands times from the Facebook Walls or Twitter. You perhaps don’t remember someone saying what. But, what made me remember Alexa’s wishes was the sentimental value within it. It was a CHRISTMAS CARD! I just realized, the last time I wrote any Christmas card was back in high school, when there was no any online social networking. This year, I guess the only card I received was a Birthday card from Suri, and it was one of the best wishes I got. Why? Because Suri wrote it down, something from the heart, and it was in the shape of a card.

Couple of nights ago, I opened up old box which contains the cards I got until now. Then, I started to read it one by one. I clearly forgot what my friends wrote to me back then, but the moment I read word by word, sentence by sentence....damn..... I forgot we used to be that sentimental back then. It brings lots of laughter and old time memories back. Some of my friends didn’t just write my ‘Happy Birthday, all the best’, or ‘Merry Christmas, cheers’, etc. They actually wrote down some nice words, telling us some silly stories, and in the end, they wished us the best, and they were different with each other. Some of the cards I got were given at school; some of them were by post. I ever read one my 16th birthday card, along with 2 pages of letter, about the story of our friendship. I also have a best friend since high school, who used to write short stories in every card she sends to me. Well, it lasted a couple years ago, 'thanks' to Facebook, I guess, then she started to write on my wall. I didn’t blame her though, but it gives me a smiling face whenever I read all those cards again.

What I’m trying to say, we used to put a lot of effort to do those things We had to buy cards (at least 10), wrote them down, and sent them to each person. Now, do you feel the difference between reading a Facebook wall post and received a Christmas card from your friend? I just realized that they differ, a lot.

Suri's B'day card

Back in February, before Suri’s birthday, I asked several of her friends NOT to write any wall post on the Facebook. Instead, I want them all to drop me the wishes, and I made a compilation of these into one single birthday card. So, these wishes will always be there, written, and you can read them, whenever you want. Now, I have to scroll down in my Facebook profile, A LOT, to take a look of my own birthday wishes from my friends.

Nowadays, I realized that it was very easy to send any kind of greetings. Just photoshop a nice picture, and post it into your profile, and start tagging all those friends of yours. And then, your friend will do the same thing, and so on and so on. And after several days, your Facebook notifications will be full of comments from different kind of people. At the end of the day, I guess those greetings wishes will quickly become obsolete, or in harsh words, less meaningful.

2 pages of 'Happy 16th Bday' letter

Am I being too sensitive about this matter, or people just easily take for granted about sentimental value? Just by clicking here and there, forward to everyone, and there it is, delivered on-line with no sweat. Greetings wishes have become less personal, and nowadays it is more like how to reach lots of people with the least of effort. Let’s say, in one year time, I don’t think you will remember when you have Birthday wishes or Christmas greetings from the Facebook wall post. It becomes nothing, like something you put on the Recycle Bin and you empty it right away.

These cards were written by a single person, every year.

Unlike the cards, when you read them again, you don’t just remember what was wrote down, but you also remember the person, the time and date, and it’s like you remember partial of something from your past, and perhaps, you can recollect some memories what kind of a person you were back then.

So, I’m just saying this out loud because I think the online social networking may have eliminated something that we used to worship a lot back a decade ago, an intimate person to person relationship. Conversations are mainly using chatting online or using your Blackberry messenger. Instead of make a phone call to say ‘Hi’, we just type easily, and without any emotional emphasis, the reply ‘Hi’ suddenly is just something coming out from the screen. Even laughter is easily replaced by icons.

This one is the funniest...Guess who???

You may feel I’m a bit exaggerating about this issue, maybe it sounds cheesy, or perhaps I’m an orthodox one. I’m just saying out loud, perhaps we should think a bit about the sentimental value on wishing something for our friends. We used to send flowers, chocolates, gifts, and the simple of them all, cards. Now, we have all of them, in icons instead.

Therefore, one of my New Year’s resolutions is that, I’ll start write again those greetings cards. Hopefully, those will signed, sealed, delivered. Happy New Year everyone !!!