A virtual feeling

A large number of activities, which are a part and parcel of everyday life, now come with the prefix 'e' for electronic, for instance, e- banking, e-mail and e-shopping to name a few. However, one aspect of personal communication, which has now fallen by and large to the electronic domain, is the trend of card sending and receiving. Yep, in this day and age, e-cards rule.

Previously, if one wanted to give someone a card on any occasion, whether it was a get well soon or Eid card, the process was long and required a lot of effort, like, going to a shop, browsing through all the cards available, reading the messages on them and then finally deciding upon the right one, writing down a personal message and then either giving the card in person or sending it by post.

Electronic cards make this process faster and more convenient. There is a much wider selection of cards available on various websites around the cyberspace. All you need is to browse the different websites, make your selection and enter the contact details and your message. The card will be instantly delivered to your recipient's mailbox and you will get an instant notification whenever the e-card is viewed.

Not only the e-cards but also their websites are quite attractive and appealing. Many websites allow you to edit and customise the card according to your preference. This flexibility to choose one's own colour scheme and in some cases, the text of the e-card itself, is one of their merits over conventional paper cards.

Another major advantage of electronic cards is that they are economical. Posting a card through mail would mean a drain on your budget plus you cannot even be sure if it will reach them on time or not. An e-card is free of such hassles.

However, as with everything else that is online, e-cards have their flip side as well. First and foremost, a lot of people feel that e-cards are just that - virtual. They are devoid of the real feelings with which a "hard copy card" is given. Electronic cards are considered by many to be highly impersonal.

But of course if one starts looking at it from that angle, then even the real cards can seem like mere wordiness. However, the effort that goes into sending a "hard copy card" does make the whole thing seem more real. Whereas an e-card by comparison is a mere point and click affair, which hardly takes more than five minutes.

One major issue related to e-cards is the numerous "mirror" websites, which have started to appear in cyberspace. There are now two categories of e-card websites. There is the "parent" website which is the genuine website, and then there are these "mirror" websites which contain almost the same layout as the parent website but they are faster to load and you can easily see the logo of the parent website imprinted on individual e-cards.

Some of these mirror websites are indeed harmless. But one major thing to keep in mind is that the mirror website can easily be a very sophisticated means of collecting email addresses, which means that you would be getting twice the amount of junk mail that you normally do. The best course of action is to be vigilant. Instead of giving out your personal email address here, it would be best for you to have a separate email address purely for sending out e-cards, so that even if you are spammed, at least it will not affect you that badly. After all, if that email address is purely for sending e-cards, then it's highly unlikely that you will be checking it that often.

While e-cards can be used as a means of spamming, they can also be used for phenomena called "phishing." In this you receive an email saying that says that you have received a greeting card. You click on the link and are told to enter your email address and password to access your card. And if you are naive enough to do that, then you will be given an assortment of e-cards to send them elsewhere rather than having access to any e-card sent to you. If any e-card website asks you to enter about your details to access your e-card, then warning bells should go off in your head. However, in spite of the cons, e-cards are quite popular.