It was lovely to be involved in a little of the behind-the-scenes research for this wonderful piece that appeared on BBC Breakfast and then on the BBC News at One, Six and Ten throughout the day. The story even popped up on BBC Radio 5 Live and is still grabbing attention on local BBC radio stations which is fantastic.

We’d been invited to pop along to the filming at the iconic Judges of Hastings postcard company but distance, together with a milestone birthday in the family, made it impossible. But the producer did ask for my thoughts on the importance of postcards, so it was good to spend time properly thinking about why postcards really do still matter.

Why do postcards matter?

In the grand scheme of things you could be forgiven for thinking postcards wouldn’t necessarily be a priority, and also what with the seemingly extortionate cost of stamps and the ease of digital means of communication, what is the point of going to all the trouble to send something physical these days? But that is the whole point. Letting someone know you’ve taken the trouble to go to the effort and that they mattered enough to choose a postcard, write some thoughts, remember their address, buy a stamp, look for a postbox and post it. We are so used to making our friends an audience and announcing to everyone what we’ve been up to in one fell swoop that we’ve forgotten the delight and joy in the intimacy of a single piece of post just for us.

Postcards of old have been compared to modern day texting but find me one person who has a text pinned to their noticeboard or held up on their fridge with a novelty magnet, or used as a bookmark or stashed away in a treasured box. And yes, stamps compared to what they were even just a few years ago seem very expensive (which they are) but without a doubt Royal Mail have taken completely the wrong approach. Constantly making loyal customers pay to keep a service (and it is meant to be a service) running by increasing prices never seems a good business model, and never promoting or advertising the product or activity you’re trying to sell also is a lose-lose scenario. I’m pretty sure all the products I chose to buy, the companies have sold me an idea or lifestyle choice from books to coffee, chocolate to music, clothes to anything. And buying stamps to send postcards (or letters) is no exception, the only difference being is with postcards you end up with one of the most magical pieces of connection; a snippet of someone’s life or holiday or just their day; an interesting picture to ponder or learn about or be in awe of; a pretty stamp, also full of culture, history, art, geography, wildlife, inventions, discoveries, you name it, masquerading as a little ticket that carries a message from one friend to another; and mostly, not only in that moment, but every time you look at it, that wonderful feeling that you were thought about.

Of course with the rise of social media postcard sending may well be at an all time low (only postal services worldwide could confirm if this is true), but equally with our saturation and growing suspicion of the digital world increasingly people are turning back to the old ways. The digital world felt all shiny and new and promising and environmentally friendly (in fact proving to be less so), but what a lot we sacrificed for that too. A bombardment of news, fake-news, too good to be true promises, click-bait, marketing and adverts; of friends’ and pseudo-friends’ and strangers’ holiday photos and achievements leaving us feeling generally inadequate; and if that wasn’t enough, the realisation that AI is now taking all our information and profiling us and selling our data to tech giants in the name of Progress. People are understandably returning to traditional non-digital means of communication with the hope that please don’t let it be too late.

So yes, writing and sending and receiving a postcard is so much more important than the simplistic idea of a pretty picture and a quick “Wish you were here!” They might be small and seemingly humble, but in fact they are a mighty force in keeping people in touch and more meaningfully connected across a real world.

Be that person, as you wave friends off on holiday (or even those on a staycation or just because), to shout “Send me a postcard!” With any luck they just might.

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Click HERE to watch.

Thanks so much to all involved in putting postcards in the spotlight. It was a wonderful celebration of them.

Dinah

Click HERE to read more about the piece.

Click HERE to listen to people talking about postcards from Hastings Beach.