“Don’t Just Send a Card, Send a Cyber Greeting!” Digital Greetings on the World Wide Web
Brenda Danet · 2020
In this chapter, we move from textual to visual and multimedia phenomena. I offer a cultural critique of a fledgling phenomenon on the World Wide Web in the mid- to late 1990s: multimedia greetings as an alternative to traditional paper postcards and greeting cards. A site called “The Animated Musical Greeting Card Store” was typical ( Plate 4.1 ). The virtual equivalent of a greeting card rack in a physical store, the site offered greetings with music and animation in a number of categories, including Birthday, Love & Romance, Congratulations, Get Well, Anniversary, Thank you, Friendship, and Invitation. Like many such sites, this one radiated playfulness: the use of many colors and particularly the prominence of red, the expression “WOW!” displayed at an angle in a handwriting-like font and with a breathless exclamation point, the dancing musical note, and the little party hat all signaled “This is fun!” However, life is not all fun. Death and many other kinds of troubles are part of life too. Note that whereas paper cards conventionally include a category for condolence or sympathy greetings, they were strikingly absent from this site. Nor were there categories for apologies or encouragement in time of difficulties.