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Host: The US Postal Service is struggling with huge financial losses. That’s partly because people are saying no to snail mail and instead using the Internet to send party invitations, birthday greetings,holiday cards, all that good stuff. Now as part of NPR series on the challenges facing the postal service, Alex Schmidt reports on the next generation of Internet greetings, e-cards that are integrated with social networking sites.

Alex Schmidt: So the holidays are coming up and I have a ton of people I want to send greetings to. I could go to the card shop down the street, spend some time thoughtfully pondering what to send my nearest and dearest or I can use online greeting service JibJab and send a mass batch of personalized disco Christmas cards to my friends on Facebook.

Gregg Spiridellis is the CEO of JibJab Mr.

Spiridellis: E-mail used to be the primary sharing method. We actually default to Facebook sharing right now because, look, all of my friends are now integrated into the page.

Alex Schmidt: On one screen, I can grab my friends' pictures, put them on top of disco-dancing bodies wearing Santa Claus hats and post it to friends' walls. For an online greeting company like this one, social networking equals money. The disco card is free, but for most of them you have to pay a $13 annual membership fee. Last year, JibJab processed over 1 million credit card orders, thanks in part to the boost of Facebook.

Ms Wanda Wen: It's a little bit sad.

Alex Schmidt: Wanda Wen is the owner of Soolip, a paper card and invitation store in Los Angeles.

Ms Wanda Wen: It's sad that our existence and our community is losing its human touch, humanness.

Alex Schmidt: She says taking the time to pick something out and write down a thought is a more authentic gesture than doing it online.

USC(University of Southern California) digital sociologist Julie Albright points out that when you send an e-card, your whole social network sees it — and not just the person you sent it to.

Ms Albright: It's not just a gift to the person in a sense or in honor to the person. You also get some kind of social boost by being the one that sent that card. Everyone sees that you sent that card to that person.

Alex Schmidt: But Ron Miller is betting his business that people are going to continue buying paper greeting cards and sending social network e-cards. He owns a greeting card company Village Lighthouse which does both.

Mr. Miller: It goes hand in hand because, you know, if you have a really important loved one that you really care about, you're not gonna buy them an e-card. You're gonna go into a store. You are gonna buy them a card and you're gonna write that personal sentiment in addition to the way that they're doing it on Facebook.

Alex Schmidt: If anything, social networks have just created a stronger greeting habit, Miller says. People share sentiments now more than they ever did.

So I’ll probably send some disco holiday cards to co-workers on Facebook. But, don’t worry, mom, next year your mother’s day card will be in the mail with a stamp on it.

For NPR News, I’m Alex Schmidt.

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