Communication in the "Age of Digital Ephemerality"

In case you haven’t read any of my other posts, I am in the middle of an experiment that I am calling The Postcard Project Chicago (https://www.rebeccamilos.com/post/the-postcard-project-chicago). I was going to send out 80 postcards to random individuals around the world, but I have reduced that number to 75, as I’ve already had some mess-ups. When I have finished writing them, I will send them off  and see what, if anything, happens.

(Below is a picture of the 25 I've done so far!)

Doing this project has made me think a lot about the difference between sending a postcard and sending an eCard, using traditional vs. digital media. If I had wanted to, I probably could have sent out an identical eCard to 80 random email addresses of people around the world, and this probably would have taken me all of 20 minutes and cost me nothing. I am realizing that what I am doing is actually taking quite a bit of time: I timed myself this morning, and it takes me about 15 minutes to write and address 5 cards. (Granted, I’m not rushing–I’m taking my time–and when you mess up, you can’t just hit the backspace key; you need to start all over again.) When you do the math, that comes out to 3 minutes per card, which (if you multiply that by 75, the number of cards I’m sending) comes out to 225 minutes, or 3.75 hours in total! Quite an investment of time. There were also expenses: I purchased 80 cards and postcard stamps, which were not cheap. 

What I’m curious about is whether people still prefer receiving printed cards over eCards. I haven’t been able to find objective research on the internet, so if you have, please send the links my way. But I can say that I would prefer to receive an actual, handwritten card over an eCard any day? Why is this? 

Well, for one, it lets me know that the person who sent it took some time out of his or her busy day to get the card for me, and we all know how precious time is these days. I also love the handwritten aspect of it; reading a message that has been typed has an anonymous feel–

it could have been written by anyone. Seeing your loved one’s distinct handwriting–my mother’s tiny chicken scrawl, for example, or my son’s still somewhat childlike writing–infuses the message with greater meaning and significance. Also, if you’re anything like me, you hold onto these cards and slips of paper, adding them to a rubber-banded bundle from years and years ago or stuffing them into a drawer only to joyfully discover them years later. I wouldn’t be able to find an eCard in my email inbox, even if my life depended on it. 

New technology is constantly being created, and many people automatically assume that new formats will replace the old, causing them to become obsolete. While this is often the case (take a trip down memory lane by visiting the Museum of Obsolete Media: https://obsoletemedia.org/film/), it isn’t always. 

When CDs came out in the 1980s, people dramatically predicted “the death of vinyl”; however, in an article that appeared in the New York Times in 2021, Ben Sisario writes, “Left for dead with the advent of CDs in the 1980s, vinyl records are now the music industry’s most popular and highest-grossing physical format, with fans choosing it for collectability, sound quality or simply the tactile experience of music in an age of digital ephemerality” ((https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/arts/music/vinyl-records-delays.html). Sisario focuses on the tactile nature of vinyl as one of its greatest attractions; while streaming music is easy and convenient to do on your phone, it doesn’t quite match the experience of pulling a record from its sleeve, placing it on the turntable, and gently lowering the needle. A similar view was expressed in an editorial in The Guardian in 2023: “Digital lives feel wobbly, insubstantial. We want the heft [my emphasis] of things we can hold in our hands, and with which we can form an emotional connection” (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/31/the-observer-view-on-the-joys-of-the-vinyl-record-resurgence). 

In 2024, we spend so much of our time sitting in front of screens–checking our email or social media on our iPhones, staring at computer screens all day at work, watching Netflix or Hulu in the evening–and this will likely only increase in the future. At what cost, though?

It would probably benefit all of us to pull away from the screen a little more and to reconnect with the tangible world around us. Go out into the garden and get messy. Pick up a print book and appreciate the feel of it in our hands. Find a nice pen, and write a heartfelt note to a friend or loved one. Dig out that old box of dusty vinyl records and put a couple on the turntable. Because while technology definitely makes our lives easier, there is an “insubstantial,” “ephemeral” quality to it that can sometimes feel quite empty.  

Please leave a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.