Sadly I’ve reached the age where the number of presents I receive has declined, many of them are extremely practical, and parents assume that I don’t enjoy surprises any more – hence why I know I’ll be unwrapping a Kindle on Christmas Day.
But giving is one thing that keeps on being just as enjoyable now, if not more, than when I was a child. I’ve sorted most of the family presents, and it turns out that my son will be getting more gadgets than his father this year – I’m not going to tempt fate and say exactly what they are. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I don’t fancy a Facebook Beacon style incident when I accidentally click on my own link at some point!
Physical media fading:
The first thing his mother and I started chatting about during the lengthy wrapping production line was the fact that my son is going to end up living in a much emptier house. If you look in my living room, there are two bookcases for books, one for CDs and a mass of DVDs under the television. In the bedroom, there are two more bookcases, various videogames and DVDs on top of the wardrobes, and in my son’s room another bookcase sits. Then in the loft next to the Christmas decoration sit another 10 boxes of videogame consoles, games, books, and the CDs I’ve already ripped to a hard drive.
But I’ve already switched to ripping CD’s in conjunction with Spotify. My DVDs are increasingly coming streamed via Zune and now Lovefilm on Xbox. And books have gone from PDFs on the laptop to Kindle for Christmas.
My son has about 2 CDs and a small but rapidly growing collection of books and DVDs, but how long will that last? Besides the risk of damage (Hence why we have about 3 broken copies of Cars in the house), he’ll soon be using his own gadgets capable of storing videos, songs and more. And having just been visiting potential schools for him to start next year, most already have a selection of iPads or at least touchscreens for even the youngest students to use.
What will he house or flat look like when he’s an adult? I still intend to give him physical editions of the most special books and music – some handed down by my parents and grandparents – but besides a sofa and a large touchscreen, will his living space be anonymous in terms of objects?
Giving more making:
At the other end of the spectrum are my parents – and traditionally my mother has always asked for something to create great food with. I get to enjoy my weakness for expensive olive oil and balsamic vinegar vicariously through her unless I happen to visit at the right time for a meal (Sadly there’s been an understandable but lamentable switch to cold sandwiches over recent months which I need to rectify).
But I’ve found some interesting things for my father – things which will hopefully inspire him to reconsider how he could combine his more latent creative side with his great practical skills. Unlike me, he can actually fix cars without bits being left over when the engine has been rebuilt, for example…
Again, I’m not going to tempt fate, just in case he happens to be reading, but it should be an interesting post-Christmas. And what’s interesting is the fact that so many cool and fascinating things for Makers are out there and easily accessible. Given the challenges in replacing items and just throwing the old ones, particularly when money is tight, it really does seem that next year is all about investing wisely and developing the skills to keep things going. After all, that’s why the coolest cars are inevitably in Cuba;
And given the rise in self-made products, will that mean more and more unique small businesses doing interesting things instead of the price-driven chain monopolies of the last few decades? Might I be able to pay a creator directly for a unique piece of work in my local high street just as I already can online?
If so, can I put in an order for some cool wrapping paper for next year, and judging by tonight, let me have double whatever I’ve estimated…
(Oh, and despite my slightly despondent tone about getting less presents as I get older, I realise I’m incredibly fortunate and already have pretty much everything I could want (Besides a high spec gaming PC and a high spec DSLR). So if you find yourself with spare cash and want to make someone happy (including me), go and use it to support people via a service like Kiva).
