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Gift Service Exchanges Online Gifts
Santa's little helper writes "According to this story on New Scientist, it will soon be possible to exchange unwanted Christmas gifts before they are even shipped." I just find this amusing, my favorite part is the
line 'instead of unwrapping presents, we might take turns logging on to a computer'. Click
here for merry christmas.
This, while being a good idea, reduces the whole "spirit of Christmas" down to a gift exchange only. It forces people to miss the point of exchanging gifts, getting together with family, big greasy meal, the whole bit.
Still, from a purely economic standpoint, I'd use it. Imagine, Uncle buys you a $20 widgit, yet, if you will put in $10 of your own money, you upgrade to a $30 widgit which only costs you $10, not $30. In many ways, this is more of an online gift certificate.
Happy Birthday, Jesus! Here's a book on C/C++ with an emphasis on AI design!
Somehow, I just don't get it. What is it with people who want to exchange or return gifts? I grew up in a house where you appreciated such things. My first instinct upon getting a present that didn't quite fit or wasn't exactly to my tastes was that I could still find a use for it, not "Hmmmm.. I wonder I can pawn this off and get an XBox!!"
Gifts are gifts. And if youre buying a gift just to throw money at someone in lieu of actually giving a shit about them, you suck in my book. Similarly, if you don't even bother to consider the thought and effort someone else put in to giving you something they felt you'd enjoy, you also suck. Hard.
Bowie J. Poag
this is getting old and so are you
blog
"The idea is to let someone give a more personal gift," says RichFX CEO Tal Kerret.
So shopping online, sending someone an email, having that person "exchange" the gift through a web site, and eventually receive it in the mail is somehow more personal than carefully selecting an appropriate gift, getting together for a holiday meal, sitting around talking and laughing, giving the gift from your own hand, and watching the (hopefully) happy expression on the recipients face as the gift is opened.
Did I wake up in the wrong Universe today?
Something like this would rate even lower then a gift certificate, it basically amounts to "I can't be bothered to spend any time thinking about you and what you might want, so instead I give you money - in a nice frame."
The only difference this system will make, is that now you take away the nice frame. If you give this to anyone you like, you shouldn't be surprised of the consequences. :)
Providing a service nobody wants - via the internet - wooohoo - sounds like a future failed business to me.
What I try and do is to PAY ATTENTION to the likes and lives of my family members and that way I can get them gifts they want without having to ask them!
No returns and plenty of smiles!
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Every year millions of people go out and buy each other gifts, because it is "the thing to do" for one day of the year.
/. posting about what I got for Christmas this year. All of it was well received, don't get me wrong. Of it all, the clothes were really what I needed most. The other stuff I got, I had asked for. One of the items seemed to be a thoughtful thing (the key fob thing) - which is something I like. And the stuff I bought myself? Well, was it really for Christmas...?
How sad.
I will speak of America, because it is what I know, because I live here.
We go to malls, to stores - many of them identical to each other. Even malls in different states are identical to each other (I was truely saddened when I went to the "Mall of America" for the first time - and "Tada!" - it looked like all of the malls here in Phoenix - only bigger - BFD!). So, gifts are bought and exchanged - gifts that could have been bought nearly anywhere in America - so identical.
Sometimes, when the giver doesn't know what the givee wants or needs - a gift certificate is given: Red Lobster, Chilis, Black Angus, Dennys, McDonalds. And that is just the food! For others, it is B&N, Amazon, Home Depot, Sears, Frys Electronics, CompUSA, etc. And for the truely challenged: cash.
Whatever happened to the love? Did it get bought and sold too? I have a sneaking suspicion it did...
I made a comment on an earlier
And the things I gave in return? Some of them had thought - but many were things asked for. What does that say? It saddens me...
Next year I want to try something harder, and I hope others do the same for me. I want to give a gift that when looked upon, it reminds the person of the thought and love that went into it, in either selecting it, or making it. Indeed, I may make gifts next year...
I once got a gift from a friend, that to this day means a lot to me. My friend told me he made it in shop class for me (long time ago in high school) - it was a little wooden incense box/burner. It is something I cherish to this day (recently I thought I lost it - I wasn't sure if I had, but I thought I did - the thought was nearly unbearable - I found it not too long ago).
I recently gave a friend of mine a handmade gift for his birthday - an origami "puzzle" box, with various small gifts contained inside (thus, the gift was both the container and wrapping in one). I spent several days thinking of what to put in it, and on it, and several hours constructing it. I hope he appreciated it for what it is (I think he did - he showed it to everyone it seemed).
I want to do that next year - use my skills to create unique gifts...
It won't be easy, but labors of love rarely are.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I like how they're labeled "Rated For 200,000 Hours (more than 20 years of continuous use)" Seems like just the think to jazz up the workstation anytime of the year at an el-cheapo price tag.
Just had to share. Ok, you can now mod me to off-topic hell.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Every year, I find myself disliking Christmas more and more, exactly because of the impersonality that seems built-in to the model. I think this year was particularly bad because of the exhortations to spend out of patriotism (buck up the economy and all that). The modern goal of Christmas is to spend, spend, spend and get, get, get, and to be honest I find myself, in that final shopping rush, looking for what I call 'respectable' gifts, instead of the kind of personal, lovely gift I really do want to give. What I call a 'respectable gift' is one that costs about the 'right amount of money' -- not so much that I am uncomfortable with it, but not so little that the recipient will think I am cheap. It seems impossible to hit the target correctly -- probably (to take a metaphor a couple of steps too far) because the arrow is bent, and hitting the target with a bent arrow would be pure chance.
I don't think the system mentioned in the article will make this phenomenon go away. I think it will make the phenomenon worse. It becomes even easier to put less thought into the gift. It makes it easier to 'scorekeep' monetarily ("Damn! He bought me a $50 present, and I spent a lousy $15 on him... I better get him something else"). It turns gift-giving and gift-receiving into a commodities market, where you buy futures ("I think Joe will like a CD this year!"), watch whether the recipient bargains up or down, and finally whether the recipient finally orders what you bought... for delivery a few days later, of course, pre-wrapped for them at the factory.
The root problem, really, is time. Do you have the time to make truly personal gifts for all your gift recipients? I'm not talking cookies -- I've discovered that homemade cookies don't cut it as a Christmas gift, unfortunately ;) I'm a divorced mother, and I'm doing well some nights to find time to make myself dinner. Americans on average put in more hours at work than any other industrialized nation, and it's only growing -- just about everyone is feeling a time crunch.
I'd also bet most of us live hundreds of miles away from most of our relatives. Once upon a time, most of your family would live in one town, and you would know much more (perhaps too much) about all of them. Now, you might see relatives a few times a year.
Be honest -- how much time do you spend with your friends that is comprised of more than LAN gaming, shop talk, or non-interactive movie-watching? How much time do you really spend with your spouse, your parents, your aunts and uncles? Given this, on what basis would you select a really appropriate gift for him or her? Hence 'commodity giving' and 'respectable' gifts -- and gift receipts, and gift certificates, and online gift wish lists.
The effect, for me, is a lingering dissatisfaction with my own efforts (or lack thereof), which leaks over into dissatisfaction with the season and the shallowness of the way we celebrate it.