Modern Day Postcards

by Uri Lafontant

After the "golden age" of postcards (which was anywhere between 1890-1920), postcards decreased in popularity. Postcards of today are mainly used for collecting and as a means for comparing to the past. Most people only get postcards as souvenirs rather than to actually send out. Back in the day, they were a big part of communication. Since they were cheaper to mail out than a normal letter in an envelope, people used postcards to get their message to whomever they wanted. If you were to look for postcards today, only in a city that had a big tourist attraction-whether it is for historic sites or great weather-would you find a wide variety of postcards. If you were to look for postcards of a small city like Beverly, then you would only find two or three. In the old days, that was not the case. When that postcard wagon started to roll, everybody jumped on. Whether it was a city or town, small or big, it did not matter. That is a good thing because now those postcards can be used to get an idea of the past, especially being that some of those postcards are the only available info on some historic sites.

In the old days, Beverly had many postcards that people could use to send out. They had postcards of people that had significance to Beverly or that were from Beverly and were famous. They also had some postcards that had monuments of some kind, which would show some of the historic sites of Beverly. Today, there are not too many postcards of Beverly. The common one is the one with the aerial view . Just about every city has this basic view. This is one of the only remaining categories from the past of Beverly postcards. In addition, people can now create their own postcard. They can take their own picture, and with new technology, make it into a postcard. This is very popular today and is what most people do instead of finding a postcard for a particular subject they are looking for.

Technology is both the friend and foe of postcards. With the rise of technology came the rise of postcards. More factories were being built, so more people had jobs, so more people could afford new things like the automobile and could now travel farther. During their travels, people needed a form of communication. This is where postcards came into play. Not only were they cheaper to send then a normal letter, but they also had a little info on where they were already on it so people could just write their important messages and get right to the point. As technology continued to grow, the postcard became less and less needed. Now when people travel, they do not need to send out any postcards. With new technology such as phones, cell phones, e-mail, lab tops, digital cameras, and online chatting, people can find a better way to give somebody a message. If someone were to get a postcard, it would more then likely be as a souvenir rather than to send to somebody.

The messages on modern postcards are also getting a little boring. If you were to look back at a postcard and read the back, there would be a lot of info of what the person wanted to say. The writing was more detailed. Today, people do not use the postcard as a means to pass important information so they only have little, short messages on them. There is not any real significance to them at all. People just have better ways to communicate and do not need to rely on a postcard.

Sure, the postcard may be dying, but it is not dead. Even though there is not a real importance on postcards, there are still a handful of people who admire them. Whether it is for collecting or for writing messages, the postcard seems to be on a comeback. They are already still quite popular in cities that have a big tourist attraction, but it would be hard for postcards to have as big an impact on a small city like Beverly as they once did. For postcards, it is an ongoing struggle versus technology; and since technology is only getting better, postcards will have its hands full.

Sources:
"Beverly High Alumni," 21 October 2002, <http://www.beverlyhighalumni.com/scenes.htm> (21 October 2002).
"Beverly Postcards." 21 October 2002, Primary Research, <http://www.primaryresearch.org/postcards/index.htm> (21 October 2002).

Back to Table of Contents