The Lost Art of the Birthday Card

I remember birthdays when I was younger. My favorite thing to do was tear open the birthday cards from family and friends. Maybe because of the money that was usually hidden inside. Maybe because I have always loved words and I LOVED reading what greeting cards said.

On everyone else's birthday, I pick greeting cards with so much emotion that sometimes, I end up crying in the greeting card store. Like, "yeah, that's my *sob* sister *sob*...." Ahem. Yeah, I can be emotional like that.

I don't remember the last time I got a birthday card from someone other than my family though. I must say that I really miss that.

In the place of greeting cards, we have blackberry messenger (bbm) messages, facebook messages, tweets, blackberry messenger(bbm) status messages and profile picture changes, etc. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the various gestures. I also understand that the average person today spends more time on some sort of computer than with anything that actually requires writing long-hand. Case in point: this blog. Once upon a time, all of this would have been written in a journal. As a matter of fact, I have quite a number of half-full journals hanging around my bedroom from the last couple of years.

I just miss the personal touch that greeting cards have.

I am just as guilty as everyone else though and am quick to change my display picture to your picture and put up an appropriate message. I do wish things were different though.

Why does this bother me so much, you ask. Well, first it was the greeting cards, notes and letters that went. Then, it was phone calls. The people that call me most - My family and my boss. I call people but I find that many times, they'd rather have a bbm conversation. Mostly because of being discreet, which I understand, but also for reasons best summed up as habit.
Now, we all want short, abrupt ways of communication - tweets, bbm, text. All effective but quite impersonal.

So it's December and as part of my new year's resolutions, I intend to give as many people birthday cards as possible. Maybe it will spur something on.