About
Valentine’s Day E-cards are digital media greeting cards created for the annual holiday Valentine’s Day for the purpose of sharing online.
Pre-Internet
Valentine’s Day[1] is an annual event that takes place each year on February 14th and is celebrated in most countries around the world. The holiday is dedicated to romance and love, and serves as an occasion for lovers to express their feelings for each other by presenting gifts and greeting cards. Although Valentine’s Day cards were originally handwritten, they have given way to mass-produced greeting cards since the 19th century. With the rise of the Internet, many began creating Valentine’s Day messages in the digital e-card format.
Spread
On February 12th, 2008, the Internet humor site Cracked[3] published a post featuring several “honest” Valentine’s Day cards containing insulting and sexually explicit messages (shown below, left). One year later, Cracked[4] published a follow-up post containing honest Valentine’s Day cards sent in by readers (shown below, right).
On February 10th, 2010, the Internet humor site College Humor[5] published several humorous e-cards based on the reality television series The Jersey Shore (shown below, left). The following year, College Humor[7] published several original “Internet Valentine’s Day cards” by staff artist Caldwell Tanner, featuring e-cards referencing various social media websites (shown below, right).
On February 12th, 2012, artist Ben Kling published several Valentine’s Day cards on his Tumblr[6] blog, featuring historical figures like Sigmund Freud, Sir Isaac Newton and Rene Descartes (shown below, top row). On February 11th, 2013, Kling published several more historical figure Valentine’s Day cards, including William Shakespeare, Charles Darwin and Friedrich Nietzsche (shown below, bottom row).[2] Within 24 hours, the post received over 6,800 notes.
On February 12th, 2013, NBC published a series of Valentine’s Day e-cards inspired by the comedy television series Parks and Recreation on their official Pinterest[8] page (shown below, left). The same day, the tech news blog Mashable[9] highlighted several Valentine’s Day cards found on Tumblr (shown below, right).
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Wikipedia – Valentine’s Day
[3]Cracked – If Valentines Day Cards Were Hoenst
[4]Cracked – If Valentines Day Cards Told the Truth
[5]College Humor – 5 Valentine’s Day Cards Inspired by the Jersey Shore
[7]College Humor – Internet Valentines Day Cards
[8]Pinterest – Parks and Rec Valentines