How postcards still make people feel special, and the online groups that help users exchange cards with others around the world
- Himanshu Agrawal in Nepal says exchanging postcards helps him smile when feeling low and receiving one sparks his senses in a way that email doesn’t
- Online forums such as Postcrossing and dedicated Facebook groups enable users to exchange postcards with like-minded strangers
Himanshu Agrawal has more than 1,200 postcards from over 140 countries in his collection. He even has some from Antarctica.
“Exchanging postcards has helped me a lot to smile during my lowest days and feel proud during my mania days,” says the 22-year-old Nepalese student, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder a decade ago.
“Whenever I am frustrated, I just take a view of my cards, read the messages written on them and smile for a moment.”
We may be living in an age of digital communication but there is a worldwide network of snail-mail lovers who appreciate the thought that goes into writing postcards, those small picture cards that have been mailed primarily by holidaymakers since 1869, when the first was sent in Austria-Hungary.
Online forums such as Postcrossing and dedicated Facebook groups enable users such as Agrawal (no relation to the author) to exchange postcards with like-minded strangers across the globe.
“Having something unexpected waiting for me when I open the mailbox is definitely special, and can often make my day,” says Paulo Magalhaes, the Portuguese then-student who founded Postcrossing in 2005. “That is especially true with postcards.”
