{"id":1837,"date":"2016-03-05T18:20:16","date_gmt":"2016-03-05T12:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1837"},"modified":"2016-03-05T18:20:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-05T12:50:16","slug":"archies-hallmark-greeting-card-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1837","title":{"rendered":"The Sad Demise of the Greeting Card"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

O<\/span><\/p><\/div><nce upon a time there was Archies Gallery. It was a place not unlike wonderland, where all our heart\u2019s most precious desires \u2013 soft toys, cheesy baubles, posters of Leonardo DiCaprio, and love-soaked cards \u2013 lived. As young people in the burning throes of our first love, hours were spent agonising over the perfect greeting card \u2013 one that had just the right amount of love, mush, humour, and maybe something extra. Frills like a three-fold that told the object of your affection just how much you were \u201cinto them\u201d.<\/span>\n\nOnce upon a time the weight of your teenage love had to be carried by the greeting card; it had the power to make or break a relationship. Every Archies and Hallmark gallery would house multiple aisles stocked with cards for every occasion \u2013 from birthdays to anniversaries, from Christmas to New Year\u2019s greetings, and no-occasion cards if you were in the mood for love. But the test of true affection was the holy grail of the \u201990s: Valentine\u2019s Day cards. <\/span>\n\nYou chose a card depending on the \u201cstage of your relationship\u201d \u2013 the straightforward one, the Hallmark-y one with an earnest quote and room for a personal inscription, the cheeky card that you picked if you wanted to play the fool, or the novelty cards that would light up or play music. They came in oversized avatars and were a great distraction from how cheap or uncreative your V-Day gift was. These aisles would be teeming with young lovers, harrowed spouses, confused children, and brown-nosing students, all of them looking for that one card greater than Draw 4.<\/span>\n\nToday, those aisles lie vacant. Actually, I\u2019m not sure where the Archies stores are anymore, or if they even stock greeting cards or just Mont Blanc and Moleskine knockoffs. So for my parents\u2019 anniversary, I decided to find out. A hunt through the bylanes of Colaba and Churchgate yielded results, and I found myself in a deserted little store, with three attendants giving me a pleading look, practically begging me to buy something.<\/span>\n\nThis was nothing like the trips I remember making during my high-school days. I would wake up in the morning, look at the wall calendar, and realise it\u2019s a friend\u2019s birthday, before scheduling a trip to the gallery. Thinking about it makes me realise that these excursions petered off once I started getting my notifications from Facebook instead of my wall calendar. Just like video killed the radio star, the internet killed the greeting card.<\/span>\n\nThe rise of social media, where users are constantly online and connected with one another, did away with the need for greeting cards. Why would someone go out to Archies to buy a card, when you could send them an e-card with glittery fonts and even a snazzy GIF? And why an e-greeting when you can just leave a message on someone\u2019s wall instead? Slowly, the card was replaced by the status update, the tag, and the tweet. <\/span>\n\n

Much like burning CDs or using a landline, selecting a greeting card is now a uniquely dated experience, one that you just don\u2019t opt for anymore<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nIf you want to send out some holiday feels to your loved ones, your options are limitless. You can add them to the list of people receiving your personalised WhatsApp broadcast, tag them in a seasonally appropriate meme on Facebook, or wish everyone at once via your Snapchat story instead. Otherwise, there\u2019s always email, text, Skype. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nBut back in the day, when Pluto was still a planet and the world was still blissfully unaware of things like<\/span> cringe pop<\/span><\/a> and FOMO, there was just one way to show your affection \u2013 the good ol\u2019 greeting card.<\/span>\n\nBut much like burning CDs or using a landline, selecting a greeting card is now a uniquely dated experience, one that you just don\u2019t opt for anymore. While its contemporaries like<\/span> Phantom cigarettes<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> board games<\/span><\/a> have been successfully canonised as priceless relics of our past, the humble greeting card has unfortunately missed its spot in listicles that \u201cOnly \u201990s Kids Will Get!\u201d The greeting card went out with a whimper, not a bang, and nobody even bothered saying RIP.<\/span>\n\nPerhaps they\u2019re gone forever, like dial-up modems and film cameras. The people still stressing about finding the right greeting card clearly do not know that it is 2017.<\/span>\n\nMy latest trip to Archies also contained the revelation that the last few faithful adherents of the greeting-card culture are people over the age of 40. I guess it\u2019s true what they say about old dogs and new tricks. But what if those people are the ones with the right idea? Not everything old turns obsolete. The Polaroid camera, the Volkswagen Beetle, smartphone versions of snakes and ladders and ludo \u2013 there\u2019s plenty of life left for a product that knows how to cater to our thirst for nostalgia.<\/span>\n\nMaybe greeting cards aren\u2019t gone for good, and are just dormant until the cycle of trends finds them again. I know at least three lonely shop attendants who can\u2019t wait for that to happen.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The greeting card\u2019s contemporaries, like Phantom cigarettes and board games have been canonised as priceless relics of our past. But the humble card has unfortunately missed its spot in listicles that \u201cOnly \u201990s Kids Will Get!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":1838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[3616,3617,182,1236,354,3618,3619,3620,3621,3622,3623,3624,1203,3625,1242,1238,3626,3627,1527,357,1246,939,3628],"class_list":["post-1837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-archies","tag-archies-gallery","tag-cards","tag-christmas","tag-facebook","tag-gift-shop","tag-gifts","tag-greeting-cards","tag-greetings","tag-hallmark","tag-hallmark-cards","tag-hallmark-store","tag-internet","tag-merry-christmas","tag-new-years","tag-new-years-eve","tag-nye","tag-seasons-greetings","tag-skype","tag-social-media","tag-valentines-day","tag-whatsapp","tag-xmas"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Sad Demise of the Greeting Card<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The greeting card\u2019s contemporaries, like Phantom cigarettes and board games have been canonised as priceless relics of our past. 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