How have sympathy cards evolved in the age of instant messaging and social networking?
“A sympathy card is no longer the only point of contact. Now, the first thing you send may be a text or an email, or a message on someone’s Facebook page. So the card has to be cognizant of that, that this isn’t the first time a sender may have reached out. I was on a project recently, a Get Well and Encouragement card that took into account that the sender had had continuous contact with someone, by whatever means, and that this card was more of a checking in. Something like, In our conversations…, or, As we’ve said to each other many times… A card used to be what we called ‘one and done.’ It isn’t that way anymore. A card is only part of the whole process.” How is a card different from those other mediums and messages? “People like having that tangible thing to put in a file and look at later. I still have all the sympathy cards from when my husband died. This is something we hear a lot from people: a card shows someone took the time. A text, an email, even a phone call is pretty
