Placelessness, spacelessness, and formlessness: experiential qualities of virtual possessions

People worldwide are increasingly acquiring virtual possessions. While virtual possessions have become ubiquitous, little work exists on how people value them, and how their experiences of them differ from material possessions. In this paper, we reflect on and synthesize findings from five studies we conducted over the past five years that investigated people's perceptions of and practices with virtual possessions. Through the higher-level perspective we adopt, we propose three thematic qualities that help characterize people's experiences with virtual possessions, as compared to their material things: placelessness, spacelessness, and formlessness. We draw on these proposed qualities as lenses to help frame future research and practice opportunities for better supporting value construction activities with virtual possessions.

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