Why holiday gift-giving has become a worry for young people
Is it essential to give gifts to lovers on Valentine's Day and anniversaries?
Do you feel disappointed if the gift you give is not loved by your lover?
Nowadays, sending gifts to each other on Valentine's Day and anniversaries is an important way for many young couples to express their hearts.
In order to send a gift that the other party is satisfied with, it has become a basic operation for many young people to check guides, find strategies, check prices, and read reviews.
What do young people in love struggle with when it comes to giving gifts?
Many young people in love feel pressured by giving gifts during the holidays
In the eyes of many people, the value of a gift is not only the string of numbers on the price tag, but also the rich emotional connotations such as heart and respect. In the eyes of sociologists and anthropologists, gifts are creation and An important way to maintain a relationship.
Therefore, on Valentine’s Day and Chinese Valentine’s Day every year, gift guides tend to be popular searches on major online platforms. Many couples hope to find out each other’s wishes through “big data” and copy a satisfactory “homework” for their relationship. Adds sweetness.
According to iiMedia Consulting, the market size of China's gift economy industry has increased from 800 billion yuan to 1,091.3 billion yuan in 2018-2020, showing an increasing trend year by year, and the market size will reach 1,226.2 billion yuan in 2022.
The popularity of the gift economy reflects that people attach great importance to emotional maintenance. Of course, there are also deliberate marketing and catering by businesses.
According to statistics, in addition to birthdays, anniversaries and other fixed time points between lovers to send gifts to each other, there are more than ten festivals of various sizes such as Chinese Valentine's Day and New Year's Day throughout the year.
This makes many young people feel pressured, worrying that no matter how careful they are in thinking about giving more gifts, there will always be a day when they run out of inspiration.
According to a survey conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily with 1,519 young people, more than 60% of the young people surveyed said they would feel psychological pressure if they did not give gifts to their lovers on special days.
In another survey, nearly 40% of the respondents felt that preparing gifts would bring financial pressure to themselves.
It can be seen that for many young couples, it is not easy to send a gift that satisfies the other party and is affordable by their own financial strength.
Boys are more bothered by gift-giving than girls
According to the survey conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily, 69.9% of the interviewed young people feel troubled when it comes to giving gifts, and the proportion of boys who are troubled is higher than that of girls. more tangled in expression.
In what ways are young people troubled?
The survey found that the top three are: whether the other party will like it (67.6%), whether they can express their feelings (50.6%), and whether they can show face (47.2%).
It can be seen that young people care more about giving gifts to suit their preferences and express their hearts. They value the emotional value of gifts such as carrying their hearts and showing respect, but they also attach great importance to "hands-on" and "face". Often more directly reflected in the economic value of the gift.
This mentality of "needing both" has become an important factor that troubles young people: If a gift has only economic value, can it express your heart?
Wouldn't it look cheap if it only had sentimental value?
These troubles are projected onto gender, and differences are also shown.
In comparison, girls are more concerned about whether the gift is liked by the other party, while boys are more concerned about whether the gift is handy and has face.
Zhou Zhihao of the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences also noticed gender differences in gift giving.
After a survey of 182 students in love in 5 colleges and universities in Chengdu, it was found that "men always bear more expenditures on love gifts than women".
The difference in gift-giving expenditure between the sexes is affected by the status of both men and women in the relationship, because men expect to gain the right to speak in the relationship through gift-giving, while women regard love as a way of emotional expression.
It can be seen that men and women have different understandings of the meaning of gifts, so their expectations for gifts are also different.
How to send a gift that satisfies the other party?
Dr. Xiang Jiangnan from the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted interviews with 13 young people in romantic relationships and found that men are often more satisfied with gifts, while women are sometimes dissatisfied with gifts, because women give more expressions of love while men give gifts. The gift-giving is regarded as an "obligation".
Therefore, for both parties in love, whether the gift is satisfied or not depends on whether the expression of love is perceived by the other party.
In this study, Xiang Jiangnan gave a sharp judgment: "Ask for high gifts or money conflicts between men and women are not the cause of the collapse of intimate relationships, but the result." people's high regard.
Rather than worrying about what kind of gift to give, young couples should pay more attention to the maintenance of daily intimacy and the expression of love for a long time.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Net trainee reporter Wang Zhiwei Source: China Youth Daily