Business Cards: The Original Avatars

Will business cards last forever? Unlikely. But keep carrying them until technology takes over.

A few days ago a Tweet caught my eye, one that was proclaiming the death of business cards.

People have been predicting the impending doom/obliteration of business cards since the beginning of the 21st century. Everyone has a smartphone or app or some widget that is supposed to supplant the humble, lowly business card.

Long before Second Life avatars, long before Facebook profiles, long before AOL screen names, human beings were flattening their complex corporeality into idealized representations of identity. In 15th-century China, in 17th-century Europe, name cards, visiting cards, and trade cards — the predecessors to today’s 2” x 3.5” business cards — gave people their first chances to construct virtual selves.

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