The currency of kindness

Are we are now re-imagining our relationship with money and loyalty?

A recent report found some men were issuing mobile payment requests from unsuccessful dates, asking the woman (in the reported cases) they were dating to pay for half of the drinks they had bought. It seems money is complicated, some people seeing payment as something (alarmingly) transactional and others viewing it as more nuanced, an expression of social norms and ritual.

We are used to the notion that money is an effective way of reflecting the value of something we buy – if nothing else, the cost-of-living crisis has made us acutely aware of the way in which our cash translates into lower amounts of value for the products and services we buy.  And this is our assumption of how money works, a proxy for value.

But how does that work when you tip someone? The uncertainty that many of us feel when we are working whether to tip and by how much shows how this is a grey zone: is it a transactional payment to reflect the quality of the service they give us?  Or is it a gift because we liked them and were grateful for being nice to us? Or is it a ritual that is so engrained that we no longer reflect on it?

This is a question that is coming more to the fore as digital platforms give more flexibility in the way we make payments.  Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon, allow users to send digital tokens, ‘super chats, or tips to content creators. Whilst these tokens are in some senses monetary, they are also gifts that express support, appreciation, or fandom. And even when sending money via a mobile wallet app such as Venmo, what seems like simple transfers of money can also often carry an underlying layer of social significance as they allow users to add messages and emojis, transforming transactions into social engagements.

So what does this tell us about the meaning of money?  And is the way in which we understand money changing as social media means of payment means we are rethinking what money means? And to take a very tangible example, what does that mean for organisations that use loyalty schemes as a means of rewarding people for the money they spend with them?

To explore this we will look in a location that at first glance seems unlikely - loyalty schemes. We argue that these are changing away from solely being about rewards for purchases and more towards creating meaningful connections and reinforcing social ties. Arguably we are seeing a much wider shift in the way we are rethinking our relationship with money, moving away from this narrow representation of value and how currency is taking different forms, especially as digital platforms develop.

From Green Shield Stamps to Wetherspoons The Game!!

Some people in the UK may remember Green Shield stamps, an icon of the 60’s and 70’s that allowed people to collect physical stamps at the checkout of shops and petrol stations, proportional to the amount spent. These stamps were then glued into books, which could be filled and exchanged for goods. At a time where bank notes and coins were used buy things, the tangible nature of the stamps seemed to represent a physical expression of value, acting as a near proxy for the cash in our pockets.

Fast forward five decades and we are in a very different world, where our representations of money and how we go about exchanging it look very different.  To illustrate we can turn to Wetherspoons The Game!! which Chris Illman started on Facebook in 2018. The game works due to a loophole in the Wetherspoon’s app which allows the user to verify them physically at a location. The Wetherspoons app, which was introduced by the pub chain in 2017, asks you to manually confirm which pub you are in, and which table you are sitting at. Anyone in the world can order you a drink to your table in London through the app on their phone.  This is so popular that membership has now reached 400,000.

Of course, perhaps we can see this as gifting rather than paying but perhaps not given 90% of people buy something back. This is not the first example of this kind – for example, back in the 2010’s people on Reddit were committing Random Acts of Pizza, where users would offer to buy and send pizza to others who might be going through a difficult time or in need of a pick-me-up. But the sheer scale of Wetherspoons The Game!! perhaps indicates a significant move in the way we understand how money works.

Some people may say that this is merely a different form of value exchange by ascribing our willingness to do this as a form of ‘warm glow’ reward – it’s all still transactional in other words. But this somewhat depressing view of human behaviour is far from a universally held view: and to help understand this we can turn to anthropologist David Graeber who had plenty to say about our relationship with money.

Rethinking money

Graeber argued against the conventional economic wisdom that money was invented to replace barter systems and is solely rational self-interested exchanges. Instead, he proposed that credit and debt systems were in fact the original forms of economic exchange, and money was only introduced later as a way of measuring and transferring this debt.

If we take that as the starting point for the meaning of money, then we can see the way payments are often enmeshed in social relationships, with debts of honour, gratitude, and obligation that far outweigh the importance of physical currency exchange. This means we can often understand money not merely as an economic transaction but a means of establishing social bonds and communal ties. That certainly seems to be congruent with Wetherspoons The Game!!

Of course, you may say this is not how it seems when you pop into your local shop, and we would agree with you. But perhaps as more transactions are done digitally then the social aspect of money is starting to be easier to see. Online games are a classic example often featuring their own currencies or special items that can be earned, purchased, or traded. Not only do they have a utility within the game but players can gift them to other people as a sign of camaraderie or to help them advance. Some of these serve as status symbols and gifting them can be a way to show respect, build relationships, or express identity within the social hierarchy of the game.

And as Rachel O’Dwyer sets out in her book ‘Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform’, this is a short step then to streaming platforms, such as Twitch, that allow viewers to support their streamers through the purchase of items from streamers’ wish lists. These are often filled with items ranging from streaming equipment to personal goods, blurring the lines between personal support and financial transactions, as value is exchanged not through traditional currency but through goods and services that directly benefit the recipient.

But is it purely digital platforms that have brought these more relational aspects of money more to the surface? There is a case to be made that wider disturbances have changed our relationship with money.

Our changing relationship with money

The banking crisis of 2008 alongside the impact of COVID on the economy have arguably set in chain a series of events that has arguably shaped our recent history in ways few other things have.  Once we have seen the way in which money was speculated so apparently casually and recklessly and how governments were able to engage in quantitative easing (the process by which central banks inject money into the economy to stimulate growth) after claims that there is no ‘magic money tree’   perhaps we could no longer quite see money in the same way again. And governments world-wide made massive provision for populations which suddenly struggled to work as businesses had to comply with COVID lockdown restrictions.

Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek has argued that these crises have exposed the abstract and speculative nature of financial markets, highlighting the disconnection between financial capitalism and the real economy—that is, the production of goods and services. This disconnection, according to Žižek, challenges traditional notions of value and the role of money as a stable measure of this value.

Žižek suggests that the widespread use of quantitative easing during these crises further complicates public perceptions of money. By effectively creating money ‘out of thin air,’ governments and central banks have shown that the constraints on money supply are not as rigid as previously thought, challenging the notion of fiscal conservatism. Moreover, Žižek claims these actions reveal the deeply political nature of economic decisions demonstrating that economic policies are not technical or neutral but are based on choices that reflect social and political priorities.

The implications of this challenge to the dominant  way in which we have come to think about money are widespread – we will look at it in the context of one area that is seeing a lot of change – loyalty schemes, the way organisations (typically but not exclusively from commercial organisations) aim to ‘reward’ their customers for their loyalty. What do these themes related to rethinking money relate to these schemes? Whilst some might be tempted (mistakenly) to dismiss online games and social media as a special condition that does not reflect reality – but the widespread adoption of loyalty schemes offers us an example of the wider implications of this shifting view of money.

Loyalty schemes

So, if we consider that money is increasingly intertwined in people’s minds with social relationships, expressions of identity, and acts of community building, then just how well do loyalty schemes fare in this respect? As discussed, historically, loyalty schemes have been deployed as a means to encourage repeat patronage, offering rewards and benefits in exchange for customer loyalty. However, in keeping with the social role of money theme. But we can see that contemporary loyalty programs are increasingly being designed to resonate on a more personal, relational level with consumers.

An example of this is Nike Membership blending traditional benefits with exclusive experiences and community engagement. Members get access to special products, personalized workouts, and events reflecting a broader definition of loyalty related to identity, lifestyle, and community participation.

In another example, Starbucks has integrated social features into its loyalty program by allowing members to gift rewards, such as a drink or birthday treat, using the Starbucks app. Members can easily send a coffee or any menu item to friends directly within the app, complete with a message. This feature transforms a simple transaction into a gesture of appreciation or celebration, strengthening the bonds between the giver and the recipient.

And we can see the way that certain features of digital environment become integral to this changing way we understand money. One such example is streaks – this refers to a consecutive series of interactions or engagements between users over a period of time. This concept is commonly associated with platforms like Snapchat, where users can maintain a streak by exchanging messages or snaps with each other on consecutive days. Streaks serve as a form of social currency, signalling ongoing communication and relationship maintenance between users.

In some cases, streaks have been adopted by digital platforms: for example language learning app Duolingo use streaks to encourage daily language practice. Users build their streak by completing lessons each day, with the app offering rewards such as in-app currency or power-ups to maintain long streaks. This aims to gamify the learning process, using the streak mechanism to enhance user engagement and commitment to learning.

Importantly for our purposes, these streaks are increasingly becoming entwined with financial transactions, as platforms offer features that help users maintain or recover streaks as part of premium subscriptions and paying users can ‘freeze’ their streaks on inactive days, encouraging payments from users motivated to keep their streaks going.

In some ways streaks are not significantly different to the Kula shell exchange, explored in detail by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in the early 20th century, is a ceremonial network in Melanesian societies, especially among the Trobriand Islanders. This tradition involves participants traveling vast distances to exchange valuable shell ornaments to build and strengthen social bonds, status, and prestige.

Thus, while the mediums and methods may differ vastly, both streaks and Kula shell exchange reinforce the importance of social connections and how these are intricately related to the way we manage our financial exchanges.

Overall. we can see the way that loyalty programs are increasingly reflecting our changing relationship with money, incorporating community-oriented rewards, aligning with customers’ engagement with broader social and communal goals and deepening the relational ties between consumers and brands.

In conclusion

The popularity of Wetherspoons The Game!! has perhaps taken everyone by surprise, not least the founder Chris Illman who held good on his promise that if the number of members reached 10,000, he would have a cloud and a spoon tattooed on his arm.

The app certainly chimes with the way David Graeber looks at money, creating ‘value’ not just through the transactional exchange of goods and services but also through the creation and deepening of social ties. Through digital developments such as this, it does seem people themselves are often leading this transformation, creating new rituals and norms around money in the digital space, with platforms perhaps playing catch-up.

There are of course critics such as Cory Doctrow would suggest digital platforms are in fact penetrating every further into our personal and social lives by capitalising on these human activities. And people such as Michael Sandel set out in his book ‘What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets’, there is a legitimate discussion on where the boundaries are set on the degree to which companies profit from social relationship dynamics (not least as the huge amounts of data these are based on raise questions of surveillance and privacy).

But more broadly and more radically, as one commentator suggested recently, the extent to which ‘money’ will continue to be meaningful term in its own right is perhaps up for debate as it seems there are a variety of different ways in which we transact that have intrinsically different purposes and risks. Just as commercial bank deposits are different to banknotes, which are different to reserve funds then so too in our personal live transactions we make in cash are different to digital money transfers accompanies by emojis which are different to tokens we trade in game. But all of them are currently placed under the umbrella of money. How long this will last is up for discussion, as some consider that “Money as a concept is increasingly outdated and misleading.”

In the meantime, understanding our relationship with money, in all its forms, rapidly seems to no longer be the sphere of the economists; instead, social scientists are more centre stage than ever to track and understand human economic behaviour.