Happy Moment #6: Reddit Gifts

Yeah. So I am obviously a little behind in terms of posting "happy moments" for #50for50. I guess a big part of the delay, of course, is the end of the semester which always seems to spring up on me post-Thanksgiving. And then when you pair the end of the semester with just a difficult semester in particular ... well, you get what happened: Lots of non-stop grading, dealing with grumpy students and colleagues, and a general state of depression. It is hard to think about "happy" when all I want to do is slip under a rock and sleep.

But ... here I am three days post-turning-in-grades and I am alive! I am also promising myself that I will make up for my lackluster performance in posting for #50for50 by doing at least FIVE happy moment posts before Christmas! Today .... Reddit Gifts!

If you don't know what Reddit Gifts means, it is basically a giant online gift exchange that started connecting internet stranger-friends around the world with one another in 2009. I first discovered this activity by running across this Ted Talks video a few years ago:

I loved the idea of buying a gift for someone so I jumped in about three years ago and did my first one! Since then, I have done the yearly Secret Santa exchange as well as a few of the smaller ones done throughout the year based on common interests (like triathlons or fabric!). I have always received a great gift (though one year, the person assigned to me fell through and I was re-matched later and that person ended up doing an awesome job!).

This year I got a guy in Missouri who happened to be an IT person so I was able to tap Jim for some ideas (since I am married to an IT guy) and I think I did a great job finding some fun gifts on Etsy for this gentleman (he hasn't uploaded my gifts to the online gallery yet but will update when he does!). I found him some floppy-disk themed coasters as well as a IT inspired mug ("Have you tried turning it off and back on?") as well as a Geordi La Forge figurine since he mentioned he was a fan! You are supposed to aim for about $20 for the gift but I am usually closer to $30 since I often get caught up in finding fun items!

My gifter this tear was amazing! He sent the three triathlon-related gifts that you see in the picture below!

Not only did he send the most amazing personal message (quick shout out to Lance, aka LMFO!) but I loved all three items. The largest box (as you can see above) includes a massage ball set. I have done such a terrible job with the foam roller that I bought two years ago (as in the sucker is still in plastic wrap!) but the balls seem a little less intimidating. I will give them a try after my next long run and see how it goes!. The smaller box on the left is a compression wrap -- and this, again, is something I have been meaning to try (where in the heck are those compression socks I bought a year ago? No idea). And the small box on the right has some KT tape. The tape will be used right away. I bought a bunch after the torn meniscus diagnosis last year but I ran out a few months back and have just never gotten around to buying more.

There is something sort of cool about not only buying a gift for a total stranger but then getting a gift from another complete stranger. I love the smiles and the happiness that I spy when I am lurking in the Secret Santa Gift Gallery -- all the awesomeness of the joy people find in these gifts are contagious and hopeful. Here are some words about McComas (the guy in the video noted above) about why and how this platform works:

"But why the heck did it work? During the first exchange, McComas worried that people would send each other boxes of trash. Instead, gifts were thoughtful ... In a TED talk this past May, McComas tried to figure out what Redditgift’s “secret” is. He pointed to the research of Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton, presented in a TED talk called 'Money Can Buy Happiness.' Norton gave students envelopes full of cash, including instructions to spend the money on either themselves or others by the end of the day. At the end of the day, the self-spenders weren’t any happier than they’d been in the morning, but the gift-givers were—whether they’d had $5 to spend on coffee for a stranger in Starbucks or $20 to give to charity. 'What he learned,' McComas told the crowd, 'is that you can buy happiness with money. You just have to spend that money on a stranger.' The warm-and-fuzzies a Santa gets from spending their cash on someone they’ll never meet are only amplified by a few of the site’s features: Recipients post pictures and descriptions of their gifts, so a Santa knows just how happy she’s made them—plus, each Santa knows that she’ll eventually get a surprise of her own in the mail."

(https://qz.com/103166/how-redditgifts-is-monetizing-altruism/)

And there is something amazing about spreading this thing called happiness!