Gift-Giving as a Conceptual Framework: Framing Social Behavior in Online Networks

Abstract

This paper explores the use of gift-giving as a theoretical and conceptual framework for analyzing social behavior in online networks and communities. Not only has gift-giving the potential to frame and explain much social media behavior, but reversely, and perhaps more Importantly, mediated social behavior also has the potential to develop gift-giving theory. Information and communication technologies form joint sociotechnical systems where new practices emerge. The paper focuses on describing the academic background of the gifting framework to help develop a deeper, theory-based, understanding of these sociotechnical phenomena. Three themes are prevalent In the gifting literature: other- orientation, social bonding and generalized reciprocity. The paper gives examples of how these themes are enacted by end-users via the use of Information and communication technologies. Finally, sociotechnically embedded economies, called gifting technologies, are Identified and discussed.