Your view: is it OK to send electronic greetings cards?

I’ve already explained that I only buy stamps once a year – at Christmas – and don’t really bother any other time as I rarely post anything.

I also confessed that I’m a fan of sending well wishes via text and maybe a message on Facebook, too.

These e-greetings are mostly sent for birthdays, and to mark the occasion, I’ll probably throw a few emoticons in there and almost certainly a picture of a birthday dog, too:

Getting personal

But is sending an electronic greeting a good way to send instant well wishes, or is it another example of technology destroying tradition?

John Ward is very much in favour of sending cards:

‘We send quite a lot of birthday cards to friends and relatives, and about two or three letters a week that require stamps. There’s also St. Valentines Day, Easter, get well, thank you, new home, best wishes, condolences, congratulations, family correspondence, and so on.’

He also pointed out that:

‘The internet has saved so much in other ways that it makes personal correspondence affordable as well as a pleasure.’

For Alfa, electronic greetings miss out the personal touch:

‘I like to receive greetings cards so also send them as electronic greetings seem a bit of a cop-out and rather impersonal. If I forget to send a card, I phone to say ‘happy birthday’, and wouldn’t dream of sending a text or email. ’

Both Wavechange and NFH agreed that e-greetings and e-cards just don’t cut the mustard and the decline of such electronic greetings is welcomed.

And Emgee noted that while electronic greetings cards lack thought, e-invitations can be quite useful:

‘Electronic greetings are nowhere near as thoughtful as finding the right card for someone, handwriting a personal message and going to the bother of posting it. Although I have received beautifully designed wedding invitations electronically with an electronic reply function and that is a good idea.’

It seems, however, that there’s still place for thoughtful and creative card sending.

Both John Ward and Malcolm sparked a degree of envy for me with their cards – Malcolm cleverly makes greetings cards from photo-print paper, and the hand-drawn cards John Ward receives from a friend sounds like they belong in an art gallery.

It had me digging around for my own card-making craft kit, which I bought a number of years ago with high hopes of finding the time to make them…

So are electronic cards an appropriate means of sending your wishes or invitations, or should they be banished altogether?