Endangered Species

One of the joys of my childhood was buying picture postcards in places we visited on vacation. Later, I enjoyed choosing just the right ones for special friends and family members, and saving a few for myself. I still have several from my first visit to England, Scotland, and Wales in 1968.

On our recent trip to Virginia, it was almost impossible to find picture postcards in newsagents' stalls at airports or train stations, and the two museums we briefly visited had a limited selection. I think it's because now that many people have "smart" phones, iPads or other tablets, and laptop computers, it's quicker and easier to email brief messages and attach photos, or to put similar information on a Facebook page, than to carry address lists, purchase postcards, write messages by hand, buy stamps, and find a mailbox.

Maps also are harder to come by now, and for the same reason. Why deal with folding and unfolding a paper map when your smart phone can get you to your destination?

I'm willing to give up picture post cards -- and direct family and friends to my Blipfoto journal when I'm on vacation -- but I'll always want paper maps, even if I have to print them off my computer. I need to see my desired location in a context larger than that provided by an iPhone or similar device in order to understand where I'm going.

Insights like these bring home to me that I'm definitely part of the "older generation" now!