By Amit Upadhyaya:
Welcome to the 21st century — an age driven by technology. From conversations to discussions, parties, enjoyment, celebrations, we do it all — online! Surely, technology has given us much more than just exposure – an assurance that life would be instant!
In this bid to live instant lives, there is little time for festivities and celebrations. But our dear technology has taken care of it as well. Exchanging gifts during the festive season has been an age-old custom but what has been this century’s contribution? Digital gifts!
Yes, an easy, quick and intelligent option is to exchange gifts online. Just open your eDevices, browse, select your gift/s, pay and off it goes to your loved ones. No wrapping issues, no delays, no tensions and unlimited options. And such gifts can be easily downloaded, printed from your laptops, smart phones, tablets and e-readers. The options are unlimited — music, movies, games, applications, e-books, magazines, shopping coupons, subscriptions, cards and deliver-to-home gifts.
There are innumerable websites that offer great deals for different occasions. And what’s more, they are ready to help you out with matching gifts with people! The best part — all this happens right from one place. So how does this process really work?
To gift tunes or music collections from your iPad/ iPhone, create an iTunes account, go to the stores section, browse, select and pay. iTunes sends a mail to your recipient that contains the link to download the music file directly to their music library. Instant delivery is promised on such gifts. To gift books, visit sites such as Amazon, simplybooks, flipkart, landmarkonthenet and browse through their collection. Sites like Amazon have special bookstores like Kindle that have ‘give as a gift’ option which enables the ebook to be delivered to your recipients. Others allow you to either send physical gifts or electronic ones via email.
Discount-coupons are also a hit in this season. Group-discount sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Steam and Blizzard, have proper guidelines on the sending and receiving of gifts. You can also send the gift to yourself and forward it later. Certain sites also allow you to set the date of delivery when your recipient would receive the gift. Sites like KangoGift allow you to send gift certificates for almost anything. Downloading them one can ‘show and shop’ at the store.
Gift vouchers from the local shops are available with Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop, Big Flix, Aroma Thai. And this isn’t the end, there is ample choice: radio station subscriptions, TV —Hulu Plus that enables the recipient to watch TV shows on any online connected device, electronic cards, mobile coupons, hotel vouchers, new language guides and many more. A special collection of gifts just for social media lovers — Dropbox, Last.fm, Netflix subscriptions, gift cards from iTunes, Amazon, Newegg, Steam gifts, Audible gifts and Evernote premiums!
Hence in all this chaos, we still manage to keep our loved ones happy. But technology isn’t everything. While some things are made easy, others are simply missed. As the digital gifts come in, the warmth, the love seems to be missing. Perhaps that how the 21st century celebrations would be — virtually!