For me, the fun of acquiring something is almost always in the hunt. I love a frenzied back-and-forth with a seller on Poshmark, an hour spent prowling the pages of Etsy, a highly specific search for an item I saw one time three years ago and have coveted ever since. Consumerism may be the downfall of civilization, sure, but in the meantime, discovering a longed-for item is an incomparable thrill.
How do you shop online? What's the craziest thing you've ever purchased on a whim? My sense is that plenty of people take my approach and treat it all a bit like a game. That's certainly what Pierre Omidyar was banking on when he launched eBay, the original gamified internet marketplace. In his 2011 story about the rise and fall of the internet auction, James Surowiecki chronicles how the site and its descendants brought the fun of hunting and gathering to internet shopping. I'd love to hear how, if at all, you partake in this kind of shopping in the comments below the piece.
Surowiecki's piece hits a somewhat elegiac note: By 2011, the novelty of eBay had worn off and the site was struggling to compete with newer, more convenient options for shoppers. As one of his sources put it, "The Internet stopped being a source of wonder and became a place to do certain kinds of business." But the idea of the auction had a pretty indelible impact on internet shopping, for buyers and sellers. It changed how people look for the things they buy, and how vendors price their goods. It's hard not to get sucked into an internet marketplace where there's always a better deal to be found.
See you next week!
Eve
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حبيبي ليس يعدله حبيب *** ولا لسواه في قلبي نصيب حبيب غاب عن بصري وسمعي *** ولكن في فؤادي ما يغيب يا حبيب ...
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