MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I love shopping. I love shopping on the internet for all the obvious reasons. However I can't help thinking we may have reached the stage where we can't buy anything or do anything without seeking peer-approval.
Recent STW threads include:
...Which fish and chip shop?
...Which tyres? (again)
...Recommend me a $THING
I suppose instantly available peer review is great and possibly weeds out the junk from the good stuff, but does anyone else miss the good old days where they just went and looked at stuff, and bought it, and didn't worry about how many stars it had been rated?
Oh the irony in the title.....
I was going to answer but I'm not sure.
What do you think I should post?
[i]Oh the irony in the title..... [/i]
+1
Maybe you should pose this question on teh interwebz.
Oh...
🙂
idave 😉
I don't know.
Has it?
*consults google*
Yes.
Trouble is, if you don't ask you end up with an X-rated POS from Halfords.
Or so I'm told.
A mate of mine made that same point to me recently:
"Why can't you just make up your own mind instead of asking STW?"
The way I see it is, why make a dodgy decision with the limited amount of information I have available when I can draw on the experiences of 1000s of folk on STW, some of whom will own the product I'm considering and be relatively honest about its merits?
If I was thinking about buying a particular car, and my neighbour had the same car, I'd probably ask him what he thought. To me those threads on here are doing exactly that on a much larger scale.
Well I remember asking which chip shop in the Dumfries and Galloway area, going to a recommended place in Kirkudbright and having a lovely fish supper,
Surely it makes good sense to ask someone in the area? 🙂
What you're missing is,
There's a difference between "I can't be arsed to google the answer" and seeking personal recommendations.
It's not solely an Internet phenomenon, it's happened for years pre-web. Only, you'd wait till you were out at the pub with your mates before going "hey, I was looking at getting a new car, maybe an Astra, any thoughts?" and get back "yeah, I had one, it was great / crap / economic / uncomfortable" etc, or maybe "our Brian's selling his, if you're interested?" It's not "peer acceptance" you're seeking, it's peer knowledge, and it's invaluable.
All the Internet has added to this social reviewing is a wider pool of 'expert friends' and an outlet for asshats to go "oh, is Google down?" every time someone asks a reasonable question.
These days I tend to try to find reviews online for most relatively expensive (or important) purchases I want to make. I want the best product I can get (in the sense of seems to fit my needs closest and is good) for the price I can afford to pay.
Makes sense to me!
EDIT: pretty much that just above!