Why is buying gifts for people so difficult?

Today I struggled mightily when picking out holiday gifts for somebody. I recently decided that I don't like giving or receiving gift cards because they are a cop out from buying actual gifts.  Gift cards take no thought and hold no connection to the person who gave them to you.  For example if your aunt got you a jacket you would think of her when receiving compliments on your jacket.  When you buy something with a gift card you don't think, "Oh I bought this with the gift card that so and so gave me".  There's that extra step of the card translating to the gift, that creates a disconnect between the gift giver and his/her recipient.  So back to the main question, why is it so difficult to buy gifts? And is this why so many people take the easy route and just go for gift cards?

I think we live in a society where everything is at our fingertips, making it very difficult to purchase gifts in this day and age.  For example, you don't want to buy somebody a CD because the person may have already downloaded the CD on itunes without you knowing.  Somebody could even just purchase the songs that they like on itunes, saving them money.  Also with On Demand and Netflix many people refrain from buying movies and seasons of television shows on DVD.  Why buy something that you already pay for with your monthly cable bill? Books could also be obsolete because of the new E-Readers and Amazon kindles.  Electronic readers allow people to have numerous books on one small piece of technology.  The electronic books are even less expensive than paper books, representing that e-books will save buyers money in the long run.  All of these items are located in a bookstore such as Borders, which is conveniently where I work.  Naturally I want to take advantage of my discount by shopping there but I've struggled in finding suitable gifts without bluntly asking the person what he/she wants.  I wonder if I can attribute the difficulty of gift buying to the society that we live in which allows us to have everything at our fingertips because of our technology.  Or maybe my conundrum begs the larger question of how well do we really know our close family and friends when we struggle greatly with the simple task of choosing a suitable gift for them during the holidays?  Forgive me for generalizing but please chime in if you also struggle with buying gifts for those close to you during the holidays.