Do Freebies Build Communities?

By Karen Sternheimer

The community where I live now is littered with Little Free Libraries, small boxes containing books for passers-by to take, and presumably also leave used books in as well. While taking walks in my new neighborhood, I started noticing that these little boxes are everywhere. I’ve also spotted a Free Blockbuster box in former newspaper boxes painted with the now defunct Blockbuster Video colors and logo. These boxes apparently contain DVDs and VHS tapes that are free for the taking.

I watched a neighbor work to install the box pictured below, paint, and load with books. There is also a little spring-themed flag that says “Welcome Peeps” in honor of the ubiquitous Easter candy of the same name.

Not that I wanted to take a book—as I recently wrote, I am committed to living with less—but just as we learn in preschool, sharing is at the heart of social relationships. Or is it?

I appreciated the effort to make something look so nice to give stuff away; it took a long time on a warm weekend to put this display together. Although I hadn’t yet met these neighbors, it made me feel good. When I saw the person who was working on the box, I smiled and said hi.

I got a reserved nod in return. No verbal hello, which I thought was interesting considering all the work put in to make a gesture of community generosity.

I didn’t take this personally; as I have written about in my observations about being a temporary local in this community, it is quite different from the community in which I previously resided, where strangers said hello and might even exchange pleasantries while out for walks.

We are in a more densely populated urban area where strangers seldom make eye contact while passing on the street. Not that there isn’t a sense of community: we regularly see groups of people congregating on lawns on sunny days, with blankets spread out encouraging friends to join. There is what we have dubbed “doggie meetup,” clumps of dogs and their people out on evening walks who stop and chat regularly. And yet, they are reluctant to say hello or even step aside off the sidewalk when we have passed by. We remain outsiders, despite the free books.

But if you cross a major thoroughfare just a block away, with large homes ranging from tidy to impressively grand estates, people are much more likely to offer a friendly hello while taking a walk. We were taken by surprise a few months ago when a well-known comedian we had seen on television was walking her dog and cheerily wished us a happy Valentine’s Day. We were north of the boulevard, by the big houses, less urban, less densely populated.

Not as many boxes of freebies, though.

This is of course an anecdotal observation, the basis on which a sociological study might be created, but no definitive conclusions can be drawn. A 2020 study by Desiree Wilson “Spatial Politics and Literacy: An Analysis of Little Free Libraries and Neighborhood Distribution of Book-Sharing Depositories in Portland, Oregon and Detroit, Michigan” concluded that book boxes are “disproportionately concentrated in white, affluent neighborhoods, even when near book deserts.” Maybe that’s why the book boxes I see in this neighborhood, which is 62 percent white, with 68 percent holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 34 percent with median household incomes of $125,000 or higher, are mostly full.

And maybe it’s not just that people don’t need what they are giving away, they don’t want them either. Many book lovers like me now prefer e-books or audiobooks, or don’t have DVD or VHS players to watch free movies. Could the popularity of these boxes be a form of virtue signaling, promoting a feeling of sharing while remaining publicly reserved?

Despite the reserved nature of my new neighbors south of the boulevard, my race, class, and gender enable me to blend in or at least be ignored. Or perhaps I look like I’m from somewhere else, which after 32 years across town I guess I am.

Perhaps, paradoxically, it is not giving but taking that makes friends. As the Benjamin Franklin Effect suggests, asking for a favor presumably leads to pressure to grant the favor and thus rationalize that we are doing so because we like that person. Perhaps giving something away is more about how we feel about ourselves than those who might receive.

Photos courtesy of the author

Comments

[gunspin]

Free gifts can certainly spark engagement, but lasting communities are built on real connection.

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