Why does no one send postcards any more?

Heading back to my old hometown for a day trip last week, I was armed with two books of first-class stamps because I knew I’d want to send a few postcards to friends. Eastbourne is a gorgeous place with a golden pier, blue waters and a stunning pebbled beach, and I was dying to write to some loved ones and tell them how I’d fallen over in public twice and how I’d had the best battered sausage and chips in the country. A few weeks prior to my trip, I realised that nobody seems to send postcards any more – in fact, I think the last postcard I got was when my nan went on a cruise more than a decade ago – and this is why I was so hellbent on sending some of my own.

The thoughts about postcards and their sentimentality were initially sparked when some of my friends and family started holidaying abroad again. Since everything has opened up again and holidays are back on the agenda, everyone seems to be sunning themselves abroad. Seeing all their snaps on social media is so joyous, but the one personal thing that I always secretly wish will arrive never does.

Despite knowing countless people flying around the world, not once have I received a postcard in recent years. Of course, I don’t resent them for not sending one because it’s just a piece of card with a pretty picture on it. But it seems crazy how, more than a decade ago, they were a real tradition whenever anyone would visit a new place. Whether you were visiting a foreign country and had loads to pack into the blank space on the back, or if you visited a new city in the UK or a quaint little seaside town, postcards were a staple in our society.

With the recipient’s address and a wonky stamp on the right-hand side and a sweet-yet-slightly-rushed note on the left, postcards are those wonderful spur-of-the-moment, incredibly sentimental, little nuggets of life. Giving someone an insight into the adventures you’ve been on, written on a corny-yet-classic “Wish you were here!” postcard, is one of those underrated things that I hope won’t ever disappear completely.

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As an avid letter writer, I am a big lover of putting pen to paper and often do just this when writing a letter to my pen pal Hannah, who lives in Maine in the US. For more than four years, Hannah and I have exchanged around one letter per month, divulging our thoughts and feelings and keeping the art of physical writing alive. Far more time-consuming than writing a postcard, it’s amazing that we’ve maintained such a thing in 2022, with emailing, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger so prominent. So why on earth have postcards died and dwindled away?

Well, I guess I know the answer to that question deep down, because as I type this, I’m faced with the shallow pile of postcards I bought the other day on my seaside day trip, currently unwritten and looking out of place on my coffee table. There they sit beside my cup of tea, while the first-class stamps remain in my purse. After rushing to the gift shop 30 minutes before my train was due to depart, I bought six postcards, grabbed a coffee and sat down to write them – only to realise I had no pen. I’ll still send them. Alas, it won’t feel authentic and they’ll have a London postmark – but at least I’m keeping the art of postcard writing alive somehow.