The power of giving a gift always makes one feel good, the fact of receiving one is appreciated as well. In this article Seth Godin goes on to explain that when someone sells you something, you are exchanging gifts. The customer gets the product and the seller gets money. Even trade, right? However, when someone gives you a gift of far greater importance or value, how is the trade fair? Godin also says that giving gifts gives you a power that some did not know they had and how giving can sometimes be just as good as receiving. Artists give to us all of the time. Whether they hang up a painting in a museum or we hear a song on the radio we are receiving their gift without giving them anything in return. However, this article says that we can be givers if we pass on what we saw or heard to another person, making that artists’ work even more popular.
The advertising world has done a great job of training us to believing only what we hear by word of mouth. If we hear that a song is bad or a movie that just came out was terrible, chances are, we won’t go see that movie or buy that person’s CD, despite all of the advertising that company may have done to promote that movie or CD to make it seem better than any other one out at that time. Everyone likes receiving gifts so when we hear about someone offering them we tend to like their work more than someone else’s and we might even re-visit this so called artists’ work again sometime in the future.
Online music comes to mind when thinking about something like this. A lot of people in this day in age download music off the internet for free. This is, in a way, the process of giving and receiving because when someone downloads a certain artist off Lime Wire or a music site like that, that person may or may not become more introduced in that artist’s music, therefore resulting in them purchasing their full CD or what have you. Then in that case, everyone gets something.
Seth later says, “When done properly, gifts work like nothing else. A gift gladly accepted changes everything. The imbalance creates motion, motion that pushes us to a new equilibrium, motion that creates connection.” Gifts are a great thing, but like Seth said, when they are done properly and correctly. The internet provides people with gifts everyday, whether it’s free information, free music, free movies etc., but what do the people receiving these gifts give back to the internet? It’s something to ponder I suppose…
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Heather, you on to something here. When you think about all the birthday, Christmas and gifts we have got over the years, don't we often wonder how much it costs? Or if the gift you gave in return is worth the same? Giving is about giving, not wondering how much the gift is worth or if you have the same gift value in your gift. We often fall victims to this, but we live in a money hungry society and we fall into the trap of "money value." Sad, but true.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the author Seth in this article. Giving is a far greater gift then receiving. It does do good for artists as well. Heather, like you said, the artists give way more then they recieve. This is true with downloading music, we get songs for free but if we really like the artist then we'll go out and buy thier albums, posters, etc. It works for everyone!
ReplyDeleteLets face it. Most of us give to recieve. For instance at christmas time. You may buy your friend a present with the assumption that they have one for you. However, most people end up keeping those gifts if they didnt get one in return.
ReplyDeleteThe internet, artists, and musicians have their gift of song or painting that was given to them by god, or self taught. I don't necessarily think it's a "gift" to us.
Overall, you should not give to recieve.