Online Shopping: Social Implications And Consequences Of The Internet

Register to read the introduction… Zukin proposes that the Internet has three paradoxes. The first is that the Internet grants us the privilege to shop anytime and anywhere, which makes online shoppers shop more. The second is the notion that because anyone can produce content for the Internet, there is a monopoly of merchants and brands which, in turn, making the Internet a lousy marketer. And the third is that the Internet makes every buyer into a seller thanks to auction sites like eBay and Amazon. (Zukin, 2004) These are all important contributions to the fairly new phenomenon of online consumption but she does not mention the social consequences that result in online shopping. Although the Internet connects the world, the online shopper becomes alienated from the social space with real people, in real-time. The shopper in the virtual world of consumption becomes separated from the real world and the act of shopping is then a detached and individual act; an act that one does on their own time and in their own customized space, away from the rest of society. Even though the Internet may make shopping easier and more convenient, it deprives us of the chance to go out into the public sphere. We “get lost” in the virtual realm of shopping and what was once human interaction of buying and selling is substituted with one-click online …show more content…
But this kind of visual display has become so natural to men and women, and especially children, who are raised under the scopic regime of mail-order catalogs, self-service stores, and television.” (2004) Children are especially drawn to the bright screen that has them playing games or surfing the Internet for longer periods of time than ever before. What I think both authors forget to mention when discussing the role of technology and consumption is the idea that even though participating in the virtual realm of online shopping or gaming may seem to create a sense of belonging and community, it also alienates them from their surroundings as these activities are experienced individually in their own time and space. When you imagine a person shopping online, it is usually one person sitting behind the screen of their computer or laptop. Similarly, when you picture a child playing on their game console, they are generally playing by themselves, against a virtual opponent. There is an interesting parallel between the flat screen that both Zukin and Pugh talks about it. In one of Pugh’s interviews with the parents, one mom says that children “forget how to play and use their imagination because they get addicted to this screen thing.” (2009) Similarly with online shopping, the virtual shopper can get lost in browsing the infinite choices highlighted by the bright screen on the Internet that