Gift Aversion Conversion Subversion
Exchanging gifts can be complicated. It’s difficult to pick out a gift that is both unique and well-received. At the same time, it isn’t easy to appreciate every gift that just anyone gives you. Exchanging gifts gets even trickier when done via network shopping services like Amazon. For example, that sweater your Auntie Marge sends you may be especially likely to be the wrong type, color, or size when ordered online. But surely Auntie Marge shouldn’t have to hesitate to send you a token of her care. Perhaps this is part of why Jeff Bezos and Colin M. Bryar filed a patent in 2006 for a system and method for converting gifts in online gift exchanges.
The patent, awarded in 2010, allows Amazon users to exchange unwanted gifts for more desirable goods without notifying the sender. The system offers Amazon users the option to set up “gift conversion rules.” A user, for example, could configure a rule that automatically converts certain gifts, or even gifts from particular senders, into a gift card or a gift certificate. If you tend not to like the gifts your brother sends you, you can set up a rule that converts gifts from him into a gift card. The rule permits you to rest assured that another unwanted gift will not show up on your front porch, at least not in an Amazon package.
While Amazon has yet to implement its gift conversion system, the patent itself has been met with some disapproval. Some argue that the system goes against the very spirit of gift giving, where it is the thought that counts, not the gift itself. Amazon’s conversion system could shift the gift recipient’s attention away from the thought and onto the exchange value of the gift itself, it is argued. Admittedly, exchanging gifts can be a stressful process. But the practice nonetheless plays a crucial and symbolic role in many relationships. Exchanging gifts helps members of a society to build and maintain healthy social bonds, and as a result, many claim it is a social practice we should be loath to give up. They fear that Amazon’s newly patented system threatens not only to undermine a valuable social practice, but also to promote ingratitude. Traditional gift giving practices tell us that we ought to be grateful for the gifts we receive, regardless of whether we like them or not. Critics claim that Amazon’s gift conversion system eliminates an important opportunity for gratitude, and pausing to remember the giver behind the gift.
Nevertheless, others argue that Amazon’s new system serves to encourage the spirit of gift giving rather than eliminate it. Indeed, it was in recognizing anxieties involved in shopping for and giving gifts online that Bezos and Bryar filed the patent, with the hope of improving the experience for givers and receivers alike.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Do you agree that Amazon’s patent threatens to undermine the value of gift giving? Why or why not?
What’s the point of exchanging gifts? Why do we do it? What, if any, meaning does gift giving bring to our lives?
To what extent, if any, are companies like Amazon responsible for the effects that their interface may have on social practices, including the practice of gift exchange?
References
[1] US Patent US7831439B1, “System and method for converting gifts”
[2] The Guardian, “Return to Santa – Amazon calls time on the unwanted gift”
[3] The Denver Post, “Amazon.com patents procedure to let recipients avoid unwanted gifts”
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