Ecards and their effect on comminication

Email has rapidly fostered a growing trend to replace special occasion communications with electronic ones. Ecards are now available for all holidays, personal milestones, social events and public announcements.  Just as with any personal communication, a significant part of content is diluted or removed when email is involved.  As described in other chapters, body language, tone and parts of interpersonal contact are eliminated or experienced differently.
       
Proper Netiquette for ecards should be practiced and maintained with the same standards of vigilance and discipline to insure that the desired result of the communication is maximized.  Whereby much direct contact, mail or letters can be replaced by email to some extent, there is a further diminishing value when ecards or their variants are used.  Forms of ecards are available as readily as the display racks of stationary stores.  These can, for the most part, be serious, humorous or witty as the following list shows:

Business Promotion Retirement by employer Firing	Graduation All levels	Announcements New Employee Tributes Promotions
Engagements	Obituaries Notifications	Major Losses Relatives
Anniversary Marriage Work	Religious Baptism All Denominations
Holidays Valentine Halloween St Patricks Day All Nationalities	Parties Invitations Cyber Parties	Mothers /Fathers Day
Birthdays Child Adult Family Coworker Customer Milestone	Get Well Serious Humorous	Relationship Separation
Cartoons Political	Thank You All occasions

One should note that many ecards are free but some of these point to advertisements.  This may not be the image one would like to show. Lastly, the message or tone an email conveys should be chosen very carefully. If there is any doubt that an ecard will be well received, it should not be considered.