Postal Services or Communicaton Impersonalisation

I love post; mail, if you will. I love sending letters to people and I love getting them in return.

I always have loved that personal feeling you get when you send someone a letter. That feeling you get in the back of your mind which isn't conscious, but it tells you that someone's set aside the time to write it all out by hand.
In this day and age, contact is so easy; a text, an email, a tweet even. Being in contact with others is so easy yet I feel it's become less sustainable. The idea that anyone can reach essentially wherever you are is a thought that, at times, drives me mad. The times when you had to call someone, or write them a letter, or even send them a telegram if you wanted to contact them are long gone and I think that's a shame. I love the technology we have these days, don't get me wrong; I love my little HTC Hero and if I hate modern communicative methods that much, well, you wouldn't be reading this now, would you? But I do honestly feel that with the tide of communications devices that we have, the task of staying in touch with others can become a chore...
In the days of snail mail being the only way, you had to commit some time to writing down something that was meaningful, something worthwhile sending and worthwhile reading. You had to envelope it, stamp it and send it off... Nowadays a simple "Hey, how are you? Hope you're good" text is sufficient.
By all means, don't think I'm putting down texting. Believe me, if you saw how full my outbox was you'd be forgiven for thinking my phone never left my hand. I'm a big texter, to say the least. But the point that I am so poorly trying to make is this: in our eagerness to ensure we are personally connected as well as possible we have destroyed the personalisation behind communication.

And that's why I love post so much. I am a huge fan of the simple, yet classic postcard. There isn't enough space to wax lyrical about life, the universe and everything which isn't always necessary however; that's what A4 is for. But it's personal; to me, the postcard is the snail mail version of the text message. There isn't really enough room for an essay (unless you write reeeeally small like me) but there's enough room to connect, to say hello, to ask how life is, to express without exact words to the effect that you value the friendship and/or relationship with a person enough to write them something physical. It says "here, have a little something that shows I care."