Online Gifts

ctrieu

Do we consider it to be proper etiquette when receiving a gift, to give something in return? Is there every time in which we do receive something and are not expected to give any kind of gift or feedback in return? We can relate a lot of how we interact with others now the gifting economy, almost all situations require this idea of giving and receiving a “gift” and how we respond according to the situation in which we are placed. 

ynichols

We all remember the elementary school Valentines exchange day that EVERYONE was involved in. The five dollar pink cards that any mom could grab off the shelf the night before the exchange, the boxed chalk like candies taped onto the backside. We would all show up with our grocery bag full of Valentines day cards expecting to see our designated area full of other people's cards. Some of us (me being one of these kids) would very visually let someone know when I did not appreciate their “gift”. Of course this is not okay, but these teachers took that opportunity to teach us what we should and shouldn't do. Why is it that they required the students to provide counter gifts and what does this mean for how we interact in the real world. 

Estelle Tree

The reason for classrooms to do this may be to be fair to every student, even when we all knew that one kid who did NOT deserve any candy. Another reason may be to teach us lessons on gifting. Of course being anywhere from six to twelve years old, we don’t exactly think about these events as lessons but looking back, I think we could make a pretty good argument towards the idea that there were many teachers teaching us the idea of gifting and human etiquette when giving and receiving a gift. But then the idea pops up, where did they learn it from? Their teachers? Where exactly does the beginning of the gifting culture begin? Everything that I can think of and that were discussed in class required some kind of exchange, whether it physical or non physical, verbal or non verbal, there is some kind of exchange. 

How does this apply to the way we live our lives now? We can look at the idea of tipping your server at the end of a meal. When we go out to eat and there is someone waiting on the table, they are providing a service. They are providing a service in which we exchange for money but does what they already get paid the gift? Some can argue that giving the establishment your business is enough for the server but what if we take it a bit further. Yes, we can say that what they get paid is their response for waiting on the table but what about the tip? Percentages of their independent work get thrown into the pot at work and it does not really count as a gift persay. When we leave the physical tip on the table, that is the idea of gifting. 

William Allen 

Not all gifting has to be in person though. When we think about how the idea of gifting affects us in our daily lives, we seem to forget the social media aspect of this. When we post something online, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, do we expect there to be some kind of interaction from the outside world? Are there specific people that we expect to like our posts just because we are closer to them? When we post pictures of our cats doing something really funny, or dress our dogs up in an outfit we all know 100% they hate wearing, can we consider that gifting the world with the images of our beloved animal or do we just think we are gifting the world with these pictures. In Vroomans case, he is strictly gifting others with these images of his cat on his Instagram:). This concept is universal in person as well as online but in different ways. Are likes and comments different levels of gifting or do we associate them in the same category of importance. Something I've personally experienced like this would be posting a picture or gifting the public with a picture that I value enough to post and share with the world and having someone I know like it. I immediately feel an obligation to return the like or comment on their most recent post if I haven’t already. 

Tohu: Mani and Sin Sin 

Side by side, the art of gifting and how we deal with interactions like this begin from before we could ever remember. Can gifting, or responding to gifts be considered a learned trait or something that has just been embedded into our culture so much that has become more of an instinct? We can see how we handle gifting in person and how the same concepts apply to gifting online, even though a much more complex idea, the principle still applies.