My New (Old) Hobby: Sending Postcards

I started using handwritten notes to keep my friendships strong and myself off social media

I get obsessed with word counts. I think most writers do. And yet, I have picked up a new hobby that involves words I never count: writing and sending cards and postcards.

This hobby is actually a return to old habits. As a member of Generation X, I saw my first computer in high school. After a summer away from home, I made friends who lived all over the country and we spent the next few years writing long letters to each other about our lives. My parents divorced when I was in high school, and when I left home, my childhood belongings were largely scattered or disappeared. I would love to find those letters again.

When social media started becoming popular in the early 2000s, I was a little hesitant. But it reconnected me with some people who were important and that drew me in. Ten years later social media was an important part of my work as a non-profit communications and fundraising manager, and it was also a tool I used to connect with friends all over the world. I was certain it was a net positive. It didn’t give me the negative feelings about myself that other people reported, I figured I was adapting to the pace of technology.

Like almost everyone else, my trip downhill on the social internet happened slowly; I almost didn’t notice. I stopped reading except for articles that were posted by friends, and eventually fed to me by the algorithm. Focusing on writing felt impossible. Time went by, and habits became a lifestyle. Then last summer I got a new phone, and didn’t log into Facebook, X, or Instagram. I kept only Substack.

I got so much time back. I’d spent hours of my life scrolling through things that weren’t necessarily bad, but they weren’t things I deliberately selected. Instead, they were presented to me as if I’d stumbled upon them, but they weren’t my proactive choices.

Enter postcards, which I have complete control over. Postcards give me an opportunity to look at an image, think about who that image reminds me of, and then send a short and directly relevant message to that person.

My girlfriend bought me a set of pens and stamps in January 2025, and I started buying postcards. Now I’m experimenting with making my own. I’m not claiming any kind of anti-tech analog purity; I write them in front of the TV while watching basketball, Stephen Colbert, or Gilmore Girls. Then I walk down to the mailbox and send them away.

This is a wildly imperfect system, and I love that. There is no “sent mail” folder, and I often completely forget what I‘ve written to someone and have to rack my brain when they respond. I also don’t keep track of who I’ve sent postcards to. If you adopt this habit, you might be more vigilant, especially if you worry about equity or have siblings who’ll be upset if you sent a card to one but not the other.

Another small word of caution: So many of us are feeling overstretched, stressed out, and at max capacity, and there are people who receive postcards or letters in the mail and take their arrival as a kind of guilt-inducing act. I know that I’ve felt this way in the past when folks have reached out to me and I haven’t had the energy to respond.

I chose to follow my instincts here and focus as much as possible on people who express interest in the practice. Lots of my friends send texts saying that my postcard made their day. They talk about what a joy it is to get real mail. Many of them have started buying and sending their own. My last post on Facebook, after not posting for quite some time, was to ask if anyone wanted to join my postcard list. It drew a very positive response.

One of the most recent cards I sent was to the daughter of one of my oldest friends after we met for dinner over the holidays. I wrote something like this:

Someday you’ll be at dinner with a friend that you know right now and they, or both of you, will bring one of your grown children. It will feel like a total blur, and a total blessing. xoxo -- Emma

Emma Margraf is a Northwest writer with words in The New York Times, Folks, and her Substack, Bites of Change. As a former Sassy magazine reader she is also very excited to have contributed to Another Jane Pratt Thing.