Due to digital services and processes, it seems that it is now only possible to contact everyone by digital means. One way to change this is called Postcrossing. The term Postcrossing refers to sending and receiving postcards throughout the world. For a number of years now, postcards from across the globe have been turning up in mailboxes with increasing frequency. They have been written by people to pass the time and by those wishing to bring pleasure to their fellow humans through short messages. Instead of the usual sample mail, unique postcards are sent with the aim of getting people to meet up – they also trigger a lot of emotions.
The Postcrossing project has been running since 2005 and is now a great success. Portuguese founder Paulo Magalhães started the project with the aim of distributing postcards all around the world. In this way, members get to know the culture of other countries and may make new friends. Drees & Sommer employee Felicitas Bauschen is part of this community. She says that during lockdown, she rediscovered writing with a pen due to the postcards. She is one of more than 800,000 members of the Postcrossing community as at August 2020. Creative writing is a good diversion, especially when working from home.
Becoming a member of the postcrossing community: Why and how
Anyone who likes to receive mail would certainly like to join – and who would not like that? It is also fun to learn about things and people in a wide variety of different places around the world. As the Postcrossing website itself reveals: your own mailbox can become a real box of surprises. Almost like a never-ending Advent calendar.
And that is how it works:
Firstly, you need to register on the Postcrossing community website. Then you can request a postcard. You will then receive a random member's address and a Postcard ID. Following this, you can write a message and include Postcard ID and address. To communicate internationally, English is used as the lingua franca. The postcard (with a stamp) is posted in the next step. When your card arrives, the recipient registers it online using the ID number. From that point in time, you will be entitled to receive postcards from a new member. So in the next step, you can look forward to your first postcard. Once you receive one in the mail, it is then up to you to register the postcard so that the next person can also enjoy a card. Too long to wait? It does not take so long if you send off several postcards at the same time. Because with Postcrossing, the more you send, the more you get back.
Visit the Postcrossing Community: Postcards connecting the world - Postcrossing
Creativity and reflection while writing
What is particularly fascinating about Postcrossing is communicating with people you do not know. We can find out new things through postcards, while also learning something about ourselves during the writing process. Choosing and writing the cards not only promotes creativity, but also has a therapeutic side to it. While writing, we reflect on the here and now, so the world and our personal problems immediately become a lot smaller.
Many people certainly join the Postcrossing community as a result of this positive thinking. Others may use the cards to write to one another about the anguish and heartache they feel in their soul. Card writing can also be helpful in this regard. Felicitas Bauschen from Drees & Sommer says she is ‘old school’ and has always liked to revert to postcards and letters.
Is it not actually ‘out’ to write postcards in our digital world?
The next thought when discussing postal mail is often the question of sustainability. Overall, how sustainable is it to send postcards around the world? What about postage, delivery and paper?
The bottom line is that sending cards does not have an exceptional impact on the environment. In the final analysis, using and operating WhatsApp, Facebook and our email accounts emits much more CO2 than sending a postcard. So switching to analog communication would generally not be such a silly idea. Yet it is also clear that, without the Internet, postcrossers could not share their contact details with one another. What makes digital messaging so problematic, in terms of the CO2 emissions associated with it, is its volume, as well as the infrastructure that has to be permanently maintained to operate it. An email without an attachment causes about ten grams of CO2. This is approximately equivalent to the carbon footprint of a plastic bag. But cooling the billions of servers that are used for moving our data uses a huge amount of energy. And at this point, ask yourself how many mobile phones or laptops you have already used? In 2019, the French TV broadcaster France Télévision calculated that one employee produces about as much greenhouse gas per day as an eleven-kilometer car trip. About twelve liters of water are also needed to cool the servers. As a result, emails and countless newsletters are more harmful to the environment due to their sheer volume than sending a few hundred postcards.
To wrap it up
Postcrossing is a trendy excursion into the analog world and so it is absolutely ‘in’ in terms of sustainability. This means there are good reasons why more and more people are interested in it – whether to pass the time or to gather oneself. Establishing contact with people all over the world is what makes this form of postcard writing so unique.
Sources:
Postcards connecting the world - Postcrossing
Postcrossing Love
Werbung per Brief und E-Mail: Der CO2-Verbrauch im Vergleich (selfmailer.com)
Eine E-Mail ist genauso klimaschädlich wie eine Plastiktüte - ÖKO-TEST (oekotest.de)