Reify is not a word you hear in normal conversation. In fact, you probably don't hear it unless you have a philosopher in your house. It is about the security we feel through objectification. We reify when we go to a play or baseball game and bring home the program. We reify whenever we try to turn an experience, a thought, or a feeling, into a material object.
Reification is why people buy souvenirs.
The habit of reification stands between us and understanding the opportunity of the Internet. The opportunity created by the Internet and the World Wide Web is the opposite of reification. It is a massive ephemeralization of traditional distribution. It is also the largest deinstitutionalization of knowledge since the invention of moveable type, an event that took place centuries ago. The reifyers will continue to shop at the mall.