I sent two postcards while on a recent weekend break on the Yorkshire coast. Well, one really, because the other was from my children to their grandparents. I chose it carefully - a picture of a municipal garden in Filey, with a bandstand surrounded by elderly people in deckchairs.

Among the pensioners enjoying the entertainment was a young couple who I jokingly claimed was me and my husband. I sent the card to two friends at work.

As I posted it, I imagined them receiving it and wondered whether either colleague would have it on her desk when I got back.

I also imagined my parents receiving their card from the children and taking pleasure in reading about the four seals we saw playing in the sea and the many hours we supposedly spent in the amusement arcade.

My best friend who, with her children, shared the holiday with us, did not send any postcards. But she passed on her "wish you were here" greetings by text messages through her mobile phone.

Not only did she send them, she received a fair few in return, presumably saying "Yes I wsh I woz thr" or whatever texters say in a language that remains as alien to me as Mandarin.

Texting is threatening the future of the postcard, as more and more people prefer to sit and push a few buttons rather than write a card.

Now, according to research by a travel company, because of the many forms of instant communication including telephone, emails and video messaging, 30 per cent of holidaymakers do not send postcards at all.

This is such a shame, particularly for children.

As a child who rarely left Yorkshire I loved receiving postcards. I would study them for hours, fascinated by the idea of foreign lands. I loved them so much I stuck them in scrapbooks. As an adult (who still rarely leaves Yorkshire) I haven't lost that fascination, and a picture of anything further afield than Pudsey will have me drooling with envy.

Postcards are special. Unlike text messages you can stick them on the fridge and hold on to them as a permanent keepsake.

I love seeing postcards in people's kitchens and in cafes and bars. There is always a temptation to turn them over and read them.

To be fair to my texting friend, she is a postcard-sender at heart and she sent us a great view of Majorca earlier this year - which will no doubt grace our fridge door for at least another decade.

Soon I shall be on holiday again, this time for a whole week - our annual family holiday in Sandsend near Whitby. From there I will probably send six or seven postcards ranging from views of the beach to more racy cards showing naked girls frolicking in the surf, which I am at pains to point out will be mailed in jest (these are available in Whitby, although on that beach I have never set eyes on anything more daring than a rolled-up trouser leg with an expanse of shockingly-white flesh underneath).

Or maybe I should join the 21st century and learn to use my mobile phone to tell friends and family: "Hvg a gd tim xept 4 all txt msgs. Am swthg fone off. Wll snd pst crd."

Updated: 10:22 Monday, August 04, 2003