Christmas Greeting Threatened By Social Networking?
By Arnab Ghosh, Gaea News NetworkThursday, December 23, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (GaeaTimes.com)- The Christmas is simply a few days ahead and the shopping season is in full swing. People are busy buying Christmas greeting and gifts for their near and dear ones. However, this year the card buying has seen a decline and the reason mostly possibly is the rise of the social networking. The experts are of the opinion that the age old tradition of sending greeting cards to near and dear ones are slowly becoming obsolete owing to the growth and effect of technology on human life. As a matter of fact the decline in Christmas card sale was first observed in 2005 and in last year the fall was noticeable.
Research shows that the coming generations are likely to stay attached to the technology driven media rather than the age old customs. The increasing popularity of gadgets like iPad, Smart phone and social networking sites like Facebook are spelling the doom for Christmas card and other types of greeting cards. The trend of staying updated on Facebook is quite visible among the users. The user base of Facebook is 550 million plus and it is still growing. While the US residents sent over 1.8 billion Christmas cards last year, the figure is expected to drop to just 1.5 billion this year.
The trend among the young men and women prove that those who used to send Christmas greeting-card in their teen and childhood are switching to social networking for the same purpose. Peer habits and the hectic lifestyle are the two reasons for this switching. They also want to remain tech savvy and hate being called backward minded which explains the decline of Christmas card sales.
