As we embark on our first post-Thanksgiving workday, what better way to let go of that extra 10 pounds of turkey flab than to settle in to a big chair for a massive online shopping binge?
As the media hype suggests, today is, allegedly, "Cyber Monday," when online shoppers stampede the tubes to buy holiday gifts with reckless abandon. Cyber Monday was originally developed as a marketing trick (sort of like a New Age Santa Claus) to rally the sheep around online shopping. It worked, I suppose, and now Cyber Monday has become a quasi-real e-retailer holiday... or so they'd like us to believe (Bahhh).
According to The New York Times, three quarters of the surveyed members of Shop.org, an online network of e-retailers, were prepared to offer discounts in observance of Cyber Monday. Effectually, 32 percent of adults surveyed were planning to shop on Cyber Monday, as opposed to 27 percent in 2006. That same survey, however, concluded that 54.5 percent of office employees (68.5 million people) planned to shop online from their desks. That's right, boys and girls. Behind those cubicle walls lurk employees armed with an agenda to get a deal on a toaster oven, come hell or high water (or pink slip). Productivity comes but second to a sweet bargain.
My overall optimism for online shopping (a.k.a. laziness) has begun to fizzle. Yeah, it's quick and easy, and the mere thought of the possibility of "free shipping" gets me all atwitter. But, truthfully, the only thing more depressing than the commercialization of the holiday season itself is the idea of millions of sad little people sitting there in pajamas -- or monkey suits -- clicking their way to truckloads of mail-order gifts. And isn't it somewhat ironic that while we're proposing to jump into hybrid cars, shopping with hemp bags, and lecturing our neighbors on carbon credits, we're eager to load the boat with styrofoam peanuts and fuel up FedEx jets all in the name of more lazily getting some chintzy, blown-glass Santa figurines to Aunt Bessie's house?
Frankly, I'm a little bored with all of it. Keeping in the spirit of the "Evolving Internet" theme, it seems online shopping is where Internet evolution comes to take a looooong nap. While we're wasting all of our efforts developing software for things like throwing virtual turkeys at people on Facebook , the pages of our online shopping sites have become staler than that annual batch of re-gifted Christmas fruitcakes.
While some sites like ToysRUs utilize video to spruce things up, the overall attitude detected from e-commerce sites is just "buy stuff because we said so" with few bells and no whistles. Amazon.com this season made somewhat of an effort, implementing a program combining Web 2.0's signature feature, interactivity, with bargain hunting. With Amazon's "Customers Vote" promotion, customers can vote on a series of products. Whichever one gets the most votes, they get to purchase that product for a bargain price. (If you voted for a loser, well, you're a loser too and don't get a discount. Loser.) Kudos to the unpaid intern who came up with this idea, but neither this nor some bland video clips are enough to propel my shopping endeavors online.
Isn't it just a bit frustrating that with all this technology available, we're using it for such apathetic and one-dimensional e-commerce applications?
There are still a few things in life that are better without technology and celebrating the Christmas season is one of them. I enjoy the holiday season, especially the shopping malls decorated with lights, trees and Santa Claus figures. Shopping on-line may be fast and easy, but (at least during the holidays) I prefer to shop the old fashion way. Maybe it's nostalgia, or maybe it's the childhood memories of Christmas, but I enjoy the holiday atmosphere of Christmas shopping. (OK...... except for the parking!)
So when I hear about Cyber Monday, I think that we've lost another small part of our culture. I have fond memories of Christmas shopping with my parents, Christmas music playing throughout the stores and sitting on the lap of the local store Santa. No child will ever have fond memories of sitting in front of a computer and cyber shopping.
I am no more affected by the Cyber Monday hype than from the allure of Black Friday. I am little swayed by the media attempts to define and strengthen recognizable trends; whether in retail sales or established positions on the 'war'. What I believe or how I go about my Christmas shopping will not change because a label was placed on an event - before it was even an event. I shop online most days in the year, dependent on my needs and my money and the availability of products in my area. Our little group here has been caught up in a much more facinating study in regards to the Christmas holiday, as well as any other reasons to shop. Namely, could the almight USA survive without greed and the historically new ME movement. If we decided we could 'do with out' esoteric things; only bought what we NEEDED and only bought for others, would the financial health of America continue? Any takers?
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Ahh, the holiday season is upon us: People have begun bargain hunting, department stores are donning premature decorations, turkeys are being shot to death, and email inboxes everywhere are being graced with season-appropriate promotional materials so absurd, one might think they were actually written by the clinically insane.
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