Online Dating and Online Shopping

    Online dating has become a huge cultural phenomenon that just keeps growing day by day. More and more people are meeting online than ever before. The internet has become a huge medium for couples to meet. Sites like Match.com, eHarmony, Zoosk have become extremely popular. Match.com already has 54 million users, and it will continue to grow. It's funny because back in the day people meet face-to-face, as there was no digital world. Now though, meeting people has become very easy and more reliable. However, please be very careful of who you meet online because there are a lot of fake people out there. This is online, and you can never be sure of who you are talking to, because you are communicating through a computer screen and not face-to-face. Personally speaking, I have never tried online dating, but I am thinking of doing so soon. It might be very interesting because you might never know of who you are going to meet. my main concern though is that it's online and you can never be sure of who is talking to you behind that computer screen. Its like the movie we saw in Comm Theory last year; Catfish, where the dude thought he was talking to a hot girl, and it ended up being somebody else. It's sad because people will manipulate you online and tell you all the good things, only for you to eventually find out that its not true. If people want to meet online, I have no problem with that, but just be careful because people will try to fool you, as trolls are everywhere on the internet. However, I would actually like to try this online dating experience, and see where it might take me.

    Another topic that we discussed in class was online shopping. Online shopping is becoming another phenomenon that is shaping the world of shopping. For people, shopping online has become a norm, as there are sites like eBay, Amazon, Walmart and etc. Online shopping has become huge business, as companies make billions of dollars. Just alone this past holiday shopping, Black Friday online sales were up at 2.4 billion dollars (Halkias, 2014). Online shopping is starting to replace traditional shopping of where people physically go to the store and buy what they need. Now, they can get what they need with one click of a button. Online shopping can also be a much cheaper alternative, as in this tough economy people are trying to save money however they can. One good example is, when I bought my laptop over the summer, I was looking for an HDMI Cable. For people that don't know what that is, it's a set of cables that help link the laptop to the television. I don't have cable, so I mainly rely on my laptop to watch all the big games and shows. I was going to try and buy it on BestBuy, but they had it for $25, whereas Amazon had it for $5. Obviously, I bought it on Amazon as it saved me a lot of money. I also buy school books online through Amazon, because buying them at the bookstore is too expensive. The prices they charge are ridiculous, and it just makes more sense to buy them online.

   Another pro of going online is you can open up your own business. Say I wanted to open up a designer shirt business, I can just easily do it online. I can create my own website, and not pay anything. I can run it from home, and then depending on how big it grows, I can expand and start hiring people. I don't have to open up a physical store which will take time to build, and then pay money for property to the city. Here it's better, cheaper and easier. The one problem that I have is now you are starting to see these physical stores go out of business because they just can't compete anymore. You then start to see people loose their jobs, and communities loosing their business. With more people shopping online, few people are physically coming to the stores. They say that Amazon could very well replace Bestbuy in the near future. I really do not want to see that happen, because so many jobs would be lost, and it will be a huge blow for people that liked buying electronics. I have bought so many things from Bestbuy that I currently use in my house, and it will be a big blow if they were to bow out. I know that there are other alternatives to buying electronics, but seeing Bestbuy go would be a little too much.

   In conclusion, I would say online shopping and dating have become very big, that will continue to grow and expand for some time. More and more people now are starting to date online, and it's becoming a big part of our culture. I would like to try online dating, but some problems are you can never be sure of who you are talking to because you can see the other person. Whereas, if you are face-to-face it's a complete different story. If you are talking to someone online just be careful because that person might not be who they say they are. As far as online shopping goes, that is also becoming a huge part of our culture, as more people are starting to shop online. It's easier, more convenient and cheaper. You can buy anything you ant with one click of a button, and honesty speaking you cannot make it more easier than that. You can start your own business online and make money through sales and sponsors. The only problem with online shopping is that it's taking away from the physical stores that people go to shop. Many stores are going out of business and people are starting to loose their jobs. It's become cheaper for people to shop online that physically going to the store. I hate seeing people loose their jobs because it's a problem for the community and it raises the unemployment rate. Online shopping is great, and I sometimes even use it, I just wish it was not taking away from the physical stores that we shop at. Going back to online dating, I will try online dating and maybe I can find the woman of my dreams.

                                                    Reference

   1. Halkias, Maria. "Holiday weekend sales slide, but online shopping scores big." The Dallas Morning News. N.p., 30 Nov 2014. Web. 11 Dec 2014. <http://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/20141130-holiday-weekend-sales-slide-but-online-shopping-scores-big.ece>.