Online Shopping: Are All of Us Guilty Before the Law?

I will not lie, I love shopping. But am I a shopaholic? No. Actually far from it.

Well, while I may not be a shopaholic but certainly social media has contributed considerably to my shopping spree.

And no I would not like to give myself a pat on my back for this behaviour. But it is what it is.

For instance, my favourite makeup item is lipstick and I have purchased half a dozen of them in the last couple of months, all thanks to social media marketing.

This marketing tactic can easily manipulate us into buying what we don’t need with its clever algorithm play. One moment you click on a product and the next moment your timeline is bombarded with similar products. Yes it does feel like carpet bombing of sorts with multiple brands showing you numerous products, all confusing and enticing you at the same time.

Of the six lipsticks that I purchased recently, I have used every single one of them on multiple occasions. But was there any dearth of lipsticks in my vanity case? Absolutely not. Yet I bought them only because they could be purchased so easily.

I didn’t step out of my home to buy them. It saved me some travel time.

Or if I look at it differently, I wouldn’t have bought them, at all, if I had to leave the comfort of my house to buy them.

Another example that comes to my mind is that of clothes. With the onset of summer, the only google search I did was for a white chikankari kurta. And suddenly my Instagram feed was inundated with a plethora of online platforms selling lucknowi chikankari.

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Truth be told, barring one time, I have never bought lucknowi chikankari online. One of my closest friends’ hometown is Lucknow and I rely on her for my chikankari supply.

Did I buy the white chikankari kurta online ? Well, almost, till I was interrupted by a work call and later forgot about it, thankfully.

These are recurring episodes for someone who is using social media these days.

Recently, my cousin told me that she regularly does ‘digital detox’ to spare herself from binge shopping.

It is essentially going off social media for 24 hours to 48 hours to regain peace of mind and some sanity by spending time away from the virtual world.

“Also I want to save my money, because every time I am on social media I burn my money with online shopping and that too on stuff I don’t even need,” she confided.

She is not alone and this kind of behaviour is not limited to cosmetics or apparel shopping, all of us have Amazon carts that are full of items we may not even need or use.

But we may still end up buying those items because they are so easily available.

At some point all of us are dealing with the issue of buying more than what we need. Either it is for instant gratification or due to sheer lack of willpower in front of incessant marketing.

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I am not blaming people who spend indiscriminately on online shopping because sometimes, we have to try too hard to better ourselves and the outcome is not always fruitful.

Solution: Keep trying.

PS: While writing this article I got distracted with my Instagram feed, which showed me an advertisement for silver jewellery. Exquisite, hand-crafted pieces specially designed for me.

Did I buy it? No (for now).