Connecting strangers across the world, one postcard at a time

While we live in a world where text messages, selfies, and Instagram photos are everywhere, there are still people who prefer a more old-fashioned way to communicate — including thousands who send postcards to people they don't even know through a website called Postcrossing.

"It's a worldwide community that loves to exchange postcards," explains Postcrossing founder Paulo Magalhães.

Magalhães, who lives in Portugal, loves snail mail. That's why in 2005, he came up with an idea to gather other mail lovers.

"Essentially, I wanted to get more mail, which is kind of a selfish thing," he said, laughing. "But I never thought it would grow to this big project."

In fact, his idea became a huge success. As of this year, he says Postcrossing has almost 800,000 members spread across 209 countries and regions around the world.

"I thought at the time there wouldn't be so many people interested in postcards. It turns out that there is more people than I expected that still love mail like me," said Magalhães.

"There's something with postcards that cannot be replaced by digital tools — the way the message is written, the intention, the time the person put to write the message."

How does Postcrossing work?

In order to receive a postcard through Postcrossing, you first need to send one.

To do that, you first have to register through the website and make a request to send a postcard. An algorithm then randomly matches you with another Postcrossing user who you must send a postcard to.

Once the recipient gets your postcard, they register it on the website, using a unique code which is assigned to every postcard. The system makes sure there's a balance between the number of cards each user sends and receives.

With more than 9,000 postcards sent, Meaghan Buchanan, from The Pas, Man., ranks second among the top Postcrossing senders in Canada.

"This is a great way to sort of travel without ever leaving my apartment," said Buchanan, who is an archivist at University College of the North.

"I don't have enough money to travel to all the places I want to go to, so I get to see them all — even if I'll probably never get to go."

Buchanan loves history and geography, and says each card is an opportunity to learn something new about places around the globe.

"If someone sends me a nice view, or a monument, I always go and research and learn more about that area of the world."

That exchange works both ways.

"It's also nice to be able to send cards to other people that they will appreciate and, hopefully, teach them a little bit about Canada."

Buchanan, who has been a Postcrossing member for 13 years, sends about 80 postcards a month. In return, she receives several dozen.

She's meticulously kept all the postcards she's received, putting them in order in boxes, sorted by continent and country. The ones she likes most are those that come from countries where there are few Postcrossing members.

"The cards coming from Iran or Ethiopia, for example, are quite rare."

Winnipeg Postcrossing member Blair Robertson, 25, also appreciates the opportunity to see more of the world through the cards she receives.

"I've been doing Postcrossing for about three and a half years. I was kind of struggling [with different aspect of my life] and it was kind of a way to travel without being able to travel," said Robertson, who works for Canada Post.

She's received postcards from Germany, the U.S., Russia, Finland, Japan, Brazil and Uzbekistan — a country with only 135 Postcrossing members.

She has always been a fan of paper. 

"I'm an anomaly and I can recognize that I am not the norm [with people of my age]. I've always been a paper person. I've never wanted to read e-books and I think that kind of translated very well into sending mail," she said.

"The postcard, it's something physical — a piece of paper that I can hold, that I can see. It's not the intangible electronic [communication] that essentially is [used] across my generation."

'Some mystery to it'

Since she joined the community in 2015, Rhea Nelken has received 22 cards.

"I just got one from Hong Kong and one from Russia," she said.

It was her passion for writing that led Nelken to register on the website. 

"I really like receiving. What I find is that you get a little bit of a personal expression every time you receive a card. It's like a little window … into someone's expression, personality."

The Winnipegger also sees some romanticism in it. 

"It's different from sending an email, because it's such a personal element. You choose the card, you're physically touching the card, you have to sit down and concentrate, you use a pen," she said.

"It's kind of romantic as well, with the time lapse and not knowing who it's going to come from or when it's going to arrive or exactly who you're sending to.… There's some mystery to it."

A collection of human connections

Alli Chernoff, also from Winnipeg, was one of the first Canadians registered on Postcrossing. She's been a member for 13 years and has sent almost 900 postcards all around the world. She likes getting to know people who live far away.

"Some people collect postcards, others collect stamps. I [collect] human connections", she said. "I like to tell and show a little bit about my daily life and learn about the life of another person [on the other side of the world]."

She says the postcards offer her an exchange of knowledge and culture.

"I just received one from Egypt that has an image of an oasis, which is nothing at all [like what] I thought an oasis was from watching cartoons and reading books growing up," she said, smiling.

Like Buchanan, she keeps all of the cards — pieces of human connections — she receives. 

"I put them up on a wall, like art. When I receive a new one that touches me a lot, I replace it with another one. It makes a collection of world art," said Chernoff.

The postcards serve a purpose, says Buchanan. 

"I think Postcrossing brings the world closer and helps us understand each other more. And with all the negativity there is in the world, this is something that — if it brings people closer and makes people smile — is always a good thing."

A version of this story was originally published in French here.