The Gift Economy

We're glutted with free stuff online; images, songs, articles, videos, etc. Rob Walker of the NYT has an interesting musing on the value of these materials:

For the consumer...it’s a bonanza. Even the most hardened skeptic of the self-expression free-for-all has to admit that plenty of nonprofessional creators, ignoring the wants and needs of the market, have produced priceless gifts for the rest of us to enjoy. On the other hand, even the most ardent enthusiast of giveaway culture has to admit that a lot of what’s on offer is not only free but worthless. That is to say, with so many gifts out there, some $0 things seem more valuable than others.

I've been getting gifts I don't want for years: those lumpy slippers that Auntie Edna knitted for me, the bright green plastic rosary beads, Nick Gilder's first album. The free offerings online are so much better, and I can pick and choose which gifts to accept.

Then I wonder about the gift which is Facebook. Sure I get to hang out with the weirdest mashup of high school friends, work colleagues from the last twenty years, and fellow music enthusiasts for free. It's fun. But I'm increasingly wary of what I am ostensibly paying for this gift in terms of my privacy and, in some ways, my brainpower.

The price for either opting out or moving myself and my 300+ friends to another site seems impossibly high. I think that in general, we digital participants need to look more carefully at the institutionalization of new media, and the point where bureaucracy and stagnation trump moving forward, and moving on.