Amazon now allows users to purchase gift cards to be delivered through Facebook, Adam Ostrow of Mashable reported. All you have to do is head over to Amazon, select the Facebook option, select the gift image, and enter your friend’s name, the amount you want to send and a personal message. After you pay, the message will be posted to your friends wall where they can redeem their Amazon gift card.

Amazon and Starbucks both allow users to gift credits to their stores through Facebook. Is Facebook becoming the new standard for gifts in our society? Let’s ponder this new concept for a moment.

• Gift cards are already being given out as presents because of how easy it is for the giver and the receiver (no more furious, last minute runs to the mall to try and figure out what to get someone and no more annoying trips to the mall because someone got you something that you didn’t want).
• Gift cards require little time and energy on the part of the giver.
• Gift cards are compact and very useful.
• Gift cards can be tailored to any budget.
• Gift cards can be considered waste by environmentally conscious people.

It looks like Amazon and Starbucks are playing off the ease of gift cards and then taking that ease one step further. You already didn’t have to leave the house to buy and send a gift card since many websites allow you to purchase a gift card and send it through the mail or email but think how impersonal those two means of motion can be. With Facebook you are being more personal because that is the new form of communication. By this time next year it would be surprising if friends weren’t exchanging all kinds of gifts and gift cards to a plethora of different stores through Facebook.