Photo: tanakawhoLast week I did something that felt very 1990′s: I purchased a compact disc. The CD wasn’t for me; it was a Christmas present.
As I wrapped the CD, I pondered the silliness of the whole enterprise. After all, the recipient — like most of us these days — listens almost exclusively to MP3 files. In fact, I’m not even sure if he has a CD player beyond his laptop, which he will use to convert his disc-shaped gift into a more useful set of MP3 files.
But somehow it felt more “real” to give a physical compact disc, rather than to transfer the property rights to a more ephemeral MP3 file. The same thing can be said for books. I now read mostly on my Kindle. You might think that this would lead my family to give me books in the appropriate electronic format; after all, they are cheaper, easier to travel with, and more useful.
Instead, my family virtually stopped giving me books. In fact, I only received one book, a volume that isn’t yet available electronically. A couple of years ago I gave a Scrabble set as a gift, and it was a hit; but our current Scrabble set is no good for traveling, so I thought about purchasing an electronic iPhone version. I passed though, because visiting the App Store on Christmas Eve just seemed to miss the point.
The examples left me wondering: What explains our schizophrenic attitude toward the invisible economy? We embrace the flow of bits and bytes in our daily lives, but we feel reluctant to give them as gifts.
It’s not often you’ll hear me say this, but I can’t see any coherent economic explanation. I’m leaving this puzzle for the psychologists, sociologists, or perhaps a more creative economist.
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It’s amazing how many people go to stores to exchange their gifts after Christmas. Oh how much better off everyone would be if people gifted cash, not items (physical or digital).
The only reasonable explanation I have is that people enjoy seeing others unwrap their gifts. (something you can’t see if it’s a digital item) I don’t believe anything is done for the benefit of the recipient, gifting makes far more sense to me if it’s seen as a selfish act.
Although I always immediately rip any new CD I purchase into MP3 files, as an audiophile, I absolutely prefer compact discs over MP3 files in major part because MP3 compression is a form of lossy compression.
Of course I realize I probably wouldn’t know the difference in a blind comparison, still, when I really want to listen to good music, I put the CD in my home theater system.
Just like the second poster above, I associate good music with CD’s.
For similar reasons that gift cards or cash are less desirable than actual physical gifts. Or even more similar to giving someone the rights to purchase something. I recently “received” a 24″ computer monitor for my birthday, which meant we both went to the store afterwards and the “giver” purchased it for me. While I got to shop for and pick out the exact monitor I wanted, it just wasn’t the same. The visceral act of handing over a tangible thing adds value to the gift or the gifting event. This is why you’re starting to see gift cards include special envelopes or even tiny gift boxes.
Michelle beat me to it. Props to her. It’s simple…the wrapping. The unwrapping of presents on Christmas and birthdays is a long standing tradition. We have been unwrapping presents on these days for as long as we have been physically able to. The wrapping is symbolic of the occasion, even more so than the gift itself. Is an unwrapped gift really a gift or just a free transfer of property? I know its semantics, but ask yourself this…would you be more likely to buy mp3 files (as opposed to cd’s) for someone if it wasn’t their birthday or Christmas, but rather just a day in which you felt particularly generous?
Also if you live in Poland you can’t buy foreign music in mp3 format legally (itunes nor amazon mp3 shops are not available in Poland). And I’m pretty sure there are more countries with such a problem. So even if there is a small group of people who are not afraid to embrace the ‘invisible’ form of such gifts they simply can’t do that in many or most areas.
Regards,
a.
Economic explanations of gift-giving often consider not only the value of what we give, but also the value we get from giving. As Michelle and Tenorca noted, a recipient may place more subjective value on unwrapping a physical present than opening an email. But in addition, I might enjoy shopping for and purchasing that physical gift more than buying its e-equivalent. I bought my father a stack of used LPs for Christmas. The smell and feel of vinyl, and the ambiance of the dingy basement used-record shop with Iggy Pop blasting in the background, made this present by far my most enjoyable purchase this holiday season. Hopefully my dad got as much utility out of the gift as I did (one other benefit of giving used gifts–no need to feel bad about trying them out before you give them)!
Perhaps there’s a self-serving aspect to this. We want the recipient of the gift to remember who gave it to him/her. The recipient is much more likely to recall the source of the CD rather then the source of the tracks once they’re ripped and thrown in with thousands of other tracks.
several times as student I bought a bar of a delicious chocolate and wrapped very carefully just to see the smile of the girl and have a perfect excuse to give a huge kiss!
A cybergift lacks the personal touch that real gifts will always have!
Ah!,by the way…the girl who receipt the chocolates more than twenty years ago,said me the past week that She still has the wrappings!…where I did practiced my rudimentary verses.
“dear susana,..while you enjoy this insignificant present,remember that when I get my degree you and I…”
yep!,..technology is terrific,but “there are certain things you cannot do…!