“The weather is here, Wish you were beautiful!”
I actually got a postcard with that message once. Post cards used to be a great souvenir of our travels, and something that friends and family members back home would look forward to receiving. Whenever a service member in my family would deploy, my grandmother made it a point to ensure that a roll of stamps was included in their duffle so that they would remember to send her postcards.
Like the snail-mail system itself, picture postcards have largely fallen out of favor. I wish I could say that I miss them. In point of fact, as great as it is to travel, sending postcards was never as much fun as receiving them. If you were diligent, you made it a point to find your postcards as soon as you landed in a new port of call. The disadvantage of getting the cards early was that you hadn’t seen anything yet, so you didn’t know what was neat, and you also had to be sure to take care of the cards while you were busy being a good tourist. But if you waited, you were sure to forget!
If a postcard was proof that you had actually been somewhere, then the modern digital camera, and to a lesser but growing degree, the smart phone, have buried the post card finally and completely. Even the cheapest digital camera takes very good pictures, and you get immediate feedback- no more waiting for the roll to come back from the lab to find out your girlfriend had her eyes closed in front of the Trevi Fountain! With the right apps installed, a smart phone can take better pictures than a cheap digi-cam.
It is so simple to send digital pictures in place of postcards as well. It is not very difficult to upload your pictures to your email account or social media page. If you have your own laptop, your hotel probably has free WiFi, or you can use a Verizon wireless promo code to get on the net. Even if you are not carrying your own computer, there are numerous Internet cafes in and near tourist spots. If you ask nicely, the clerk at the hotel desk may even let you borrow the hotel’s computer. Just be sure not to leave any personal information on a public computer!
Digital pictures are an easy way to accomplish the true mission of a picture postcard, showing off the fact that you are having fun in a far away, exotic place!