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You are here: Home / Back to Basics / UCG Affects Holiday Greeting Cards, Too

UCG Affects Holiday Greeting Cards, Too

December 23, 2009 •

This year a sig­nif­i­cant pro­por­tion of the greet­ing cards we’ve received have been assem­bled from dig­i­tal con­tent cre­ated by our fam­ily mem­bers and friends. Most of these cards fea­ture fam­ily pho­tos and/or snap­shots of peak moments through­out the year; a few are totally hand­made, artsy, often col­lages with no dig­i­tal ele­ments.

Per­son­al­ized cards, user-gen­er­ated con­tent

What strikes me is the way the pop­u­lar­ity of user-cre­ated con­tent in online and social net­work­ing are­nas may be sub­tly influ­enc­ing how peo­ple pre­fer to com­mu­ni­cate these days via hol­i­day greet­ing cards.

Clearly, it takes more effort to pro­duce per­son­al­ized cards than sim­ply buy­ing and sign­ing mass-mar­ket cards from Hall­mark. Given how busy most peo­ple are dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son, you have to assume the trend toward self-made cards and let­ters reflects fun­da­men­tal human needs to con­nect on a deeper level, to find out­lets for cre­ative expres­sion, share funny moments, and so on.

We’ve really enjoyed this out­pour­ing of per­son­al­ized greet­ing cards this year. And wish we had rec­i­p­ro­cated in a sim­i­lar fash­ion…

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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