The Gift of The Web

Having woken up this morning with a head that feels like it's been carved from wood, I've resolved to stay in bed and start again tomorrow. Bed time is a ridiculously good opportunity to catch up on the reading I put off during a normal working week. I'm currently reading a book called "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde, a thirty-year-old book but has recently been rereleased in a doodle-strewn, scribble-covered edition that makes it look like a well-loved writer's notebook.

The main thrust of the book concerns gift culture amongst society and, so far, has cited lots of examples of ritual gift giving in Pacific island communities, Native American tribes, and "modern day" society, all the while reiterating that gifts must be given without hoping for a response of equal value, and that it is the act of giving a gift freely which holds our creative society together.

In my slightly groggy state I was only partially paying attention to the book – I was also distracted by sporadically checking up on my Twitter and Flickr accounts, as the day before I'd uploaded some pictures of the London Marathon and was hoping to see what people thought of my creative efforts. A few of my friends had left comments, offering advice and suggestions for new approaches.



As I read their words and smiled to myself, I remembered that I hadn't commented on their pictures for a while and that this wasn't really in the spirit of Flickr, and resolved to spend a couple of minutes going through their photostreams. I'd also been invited to join a couple of groups, one which had the entry-requirements that you comment on three other images in the group.

It hit me: like lightning I leapt for the book again, flicking through the pages to find this quote that clutched at the corners of my mind:

"Whatever we have been given is supposed to be given away again, not kept. Or, if it is kept, something of similar value should move on in its stead, the way a billiard ball may stop when it sends another scurrying across the felt, its momentum transferred... as it is passed along, it may return to the original donor, but this is not essential. In fact, it is better if the gift is not returned but is given instead to some new, third party. The only essential is this: the gift must always move."

p4, "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde

This is exactly what Flickr (and indeed, the rest of the photo-sharing community) revolves around: the idea that you must give comments to get comments, and by passing your thoughts on and making connections, you too will benefit. It's modern day gift culture!

When my dear plus one was trying to get his blog established, I said that one of the quickest ways to get people reading his work would be to comment on other people's sites - sites which he found interesting, sites which he loved for whatever reason - and then if the writers of those sites had good netiquette, they'd return the favour and broaden his horizons.

Very recently I wrote a piece for our Pro magazine on how to "get ahead" by using the Web and social networking sites like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter to make new contacts. Using these sites is nothing more than the modern day equivalent of touring round agencies with your portfolio or posting your CV and clips to editors of magazines that you admire - but the net makes it easier.

However - it's obvious (to me, at least) that in order to get the maximum benefit from these sites, you need to interact with them on a deeper level than just chucking some images up and waiting to see what happens - you need to give "gifts" to other people in order to fully benefit from their potential. Not commenting on other people's pictures is like dumping your portfolio in an agency's waiting room and leaving without talking to anyone from the company - unlikely to result in anything except you having to fork out for a new portfolio at some point.

As I said in the article: yes, this takes time, and no, it does not instantly result in wealth and riches: but the whole point of the exchange is that you shouldn't be concerned with the benefits. If you'll forgive this expression - it's not about that. I know that makes me sound like a petulant teenager stamping my foot and perhaps wouldn't go down so well amongst certain communities, but I whole-heartedly believe it to be true. If you give without expectation of a return gift, you will receive your return gift - somewhere, somehow. And modern life could do with a lot more of this way of thinking.

With that, I'm off to comment on some pictures taken by people I don't know, who I am unlikely to ever meet in real life, for the purposes of admiring their work and making a small connection with them. Who knows what might come of it. And that's the point.