Background Gift exchange is a ritual practice imbued with current values of social relationships. The Internet and smart devices have reduced temporal and geographical barriers in gift exchange by enabling digital gifting. Online gifts are increasingly being exchanged on multiple, everyday occasions. Thus, it is important to understand how digital technology frames our social interactions with regard to digital gifting. In this paper, we present qualitative research by introducing Ritual Probe, a bespoke diary booklet, where participants are sensitised to retrospectively articulate rituals in their everyday lives and digital interactions. We suggest an avenue for the development of digital gifting that resonates with our interpretation of how digital gifting rituals are vaguely practised in private and social contexts.
Methods We designed Ritual Probe in a semi-structured format that facilitates participants’ autonomy to educe latent rituals while they act out daily practices. The mobility of the probe materials was expected to help this practice throughout the study. Participants were encouraged to use the probe materials for 2–4 weeks. Moreover, follow-up interviews were conducted to examine participants’ points of view in discerning rituals in secular and quotidian contexts, distinctive of daily habits.
Results Participants showed varying degrees of engagement with the probes. The interview helped participants to comprehend the ritual aspects of their digital gifting experience and other social interactions. We found that ritual design in digital gifting needs to be considered from three perspectives: keeping the momentum of gifting rituals, synchronising giving and receiving, and building a mutual bond while reflecting upon the use of digital gifts.
Conclusions From the outset, we aimed to recollect, restore and reconcile dubious rituals in the exchange of digital media contents. Through a ritual lens, we attempted to understand the way people structure and think about digital gift exchange. We examined how people ruminate on the current practices of digital gifting, which lack the common vocabulary of exchange rituals. This study suggests implications for designers and researchers in designing experiential gifts by employing digitally augmented physical artefacts or events, which can be reformulated as episodic interactions.