A lot of my friends have joined in the "Secret Santa book gift activity" on Facebook. Being a book lover myself I thought I should write about the reasons why I think it is not such a good idea and propose an alternate way.
For those unaware, this is how "Secret Santa" works.
- Person C joins in the event by commenting on Person B’s “book gift activity” message.
- Person C is then asked to gift a book to another person (A) mentioned by person B. Think of it as a participation fee.
- Person C then posts the “book gift activity” message and the trend continues.
OK now that the rules are clear let us look at with the help of the diagram.
L1----------------------------------A--------------------------------
L2-----A1----A2-----A3-----------------A4-----A5-----A6----------
L3---A11-A16---A21-A26-----A31-A36------A41-A46------A51-A56----A61-A66.
Based on the above info we know that the Level 3 will be giving the gifts to Level 1.Which really makes it exciting. Because the Level 1 guy is getting all of 36 books, while gifting just 1 book. (His participation fee). Since this is a chain everyone gets 36 books by gifting just one book. Amazing right?
Not quite so. Although it must be obvious but let me do the explaining nevertheless.
Assuming that books are not being created out of thin air, the number of books bought will be the same as the number of books gifted. So when you get 36 books it essentially means that 35 people taking part in it will not be getting a single book. Sound more like a lottery than a secret santa, right?
Only thing is; it is worse. While in a lottery the chances of winning the jackpot will be equal for everyone, here the chances are biased to your social popularity. The way to ensure that you get 36 books is by ensuring that there are atleast two levels below you. (And don’t kid yourself in thinking that everyone will be able to do it. As I have explained earlier for every one person getting the complete two levels, there will be 35 failing to do so.)
So the secret of getting more books to read is to be more socially active. A little ironic isn’t it? Also dare I say; a little “Amway” ish. The only difference (that too for worse) is you are selling the scheme to your friends instead of acquaintance.
Now that I have explained the absurdity of it let me also dig into the language of the post.
“Want some books for Christmas? Join this lovely Secret Santa thread doing the rounds on Facebook. All you have to do is buy one book and send it to one person. In exchange, you'll receive lots more in return!
I just need six people of any age/location (within India) to participate in this book exchange. Comment below if interested, and I will privately message you how to go about it.
Let the fun begin!”
Notice the part that talks about buying a new book. Gifting a book would have been enough right?. And any true book lover will value a well-kept used book more than a new one. I do not want to turn this into a conspiracy theory blog but you must be getting the hint by now.
Another interesting point (proof?) is that books are not getting exchanged. Funny!
Let me break this down for you if you did not get the joke. You have, through a social network, created a group of 36 people who all love books. What would you want to do?
(a) Exchange books among themselves
(b) Create a contest where the most popular person gets to keep all the books.
Based on the trend clearly (b) is the answer.
So here is what I propose. Instead of creating levels; Create a circle. Pass on the books to next guy/girl every month. So by end of jan, a1 gives a book to a2, a2 gives a book to a3 and so on.Only rule; put forward the name of your nominated book initially and that book must not have been read by at least 50% of the remaining people in the circle.