Now that Santa Delivered, Will You Use that Gizmo As Much as You Thought?

Well, another Christmas has come and gone.  Maybe you spent too much for a particular gift or you blew the budget altogether.  Now you wait dreading the delivery of those credit card statements or you look at your checkbook and realize just how little value all those pre-numbered slips of paper represent.  As my father once said following the holidays, “if it cost a quarter to go ‘round the world, I couldn’t get out of sight!”

For those of you who asked for and received any digital gadgets this holiday season, consider this.  Often we as consumers vastly over-estimate how much we will utilize something that we thing we just have to have.  According to Lee Dye in an ABC opinion piece, psychology researchers have studied consumers to determine if we are capable of accurately estimating just how much we will use something we really want.  One university study found that “nearly two thirds of the time people overestimate how much they will use that must-have gizmo.”  Interestingly researchers have also found that others can better predict how much a person will utilize an item, even if they are not familiar with the person.

In one test, researchers asked college students to identify the gift they wanted the most and to estimate how much they would use the much-wanted item.  The following semester, researchers tracked down as many of the students as they could to see if they had in fact received the items they most wanted, and to determine if they were using them as much as they had estimated.  Researchers found that the students had “grossly overestimated” their usage.

The researchers had also asked another group of students labeled as observers to estimate how much the test subjects would use their wish-list items.  These observers were unfamiliar with the test subjects and were only given the item and the estimate of usage for each.  They then provided predictions that were remarkably accurate.  Another group of observers were only provided with the item and not the test subjects’ usage estimates.  These observers faired no better than the test subjects in estimating usage.

According to Dye, researchers came away from the study with the belief that consumers would be wise to consult others – even strangers – when considering a purchase that they think they simply must have.  “Why would anyone else know our needs better then we know ourselves?  Quite possibly because we all feel guilt over the stuff we thought we had to have, but never use, so we’re doubtful that anyone else will use their stuff as much as they think they will, either.”

While Dye’s opinion piece and the research that inspired it likely have a lot of merit, especially in light of the mysteries of the human psyche, I wonder though if this applies to coveted gadgets and gizmos such as cell/smart phones, computer equipment, and other items that make it possible for users to connect via new media?  Maybe it is still too early to tell whether or not we will use and enjoy the digital gifts as much as we thought when we asked Santa for them?

How about you?  Were there any must-have digital items on your holiday wish list?  If you received them, do you think you will wind up not using them as often as you thought?  Maybe this has happened in years past?  Or maybe you bought a digital device for someone else only to find that they hardly use the gifts.

Kind regards,

Chris Daniel

P.S.
From personal experience, I have purchased two computers for family members as Christmas presents and found that both are rarely used.  The circumstances are a bit different though as these were surprise gifts and weren’t requested.  One was a complete desktop system for a teenager and the second was a loaded laptop for my significant other.  Go figure.

Resource

Gotta Have the Latest Gadget? Consumers Won’t Use New Gadgets as Often as They Think They Will, Research Shows

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/gotta-latest-gadget/story?id=9344253