Status: Online

Being part of a generation which believes that a picture validates the actual action, ‘viral’ doesn’t mean flu, ‘FOMO’ (fear of missing out) is so rampant. We spend most of our time online creating deep digital footprints. We work, socialise, shop, read, pay bills online amongst many other activities.

Even before we open our eyes, we reach out to our phones and are immediately flooded with information, messages and advertisements. Being almost neck deep in the online culture we have all developed certain qualities, behaviour traits as online users, consumers or shoppers. Most of us tend to exhibit more than a single behaviour trait depending o the situation.

I consume a lot of content both articles and videos on DIY, arts and crafts, food, and Anime on various online platforms like Youtube, Instagram and blogs. I keep adding cooking, DIY videos to my playlist and bookmark articles and anime names in the hopes of creating the craft or the dish and watching the show. Although, I try to tick them off my list, the list keeps piling up. I tend to add and delete books and comics especially the complete sets to my shopping cart on online shopping portals  and wish to be able to own  all the books, comics and watch all the shows on my mental list.

As a person who is not inclined towards shopping online or offline, I tend to be a rational customer. I decide exactly what I want to buy, which brand and from which online shopping website.  For example if I need to buy a watch, I only look at fastrack watches on Amazon or Flipkart. I pick the design and buy it immediately.  I don’t dwell much on buying the products or brands that I have chosen as I am not a frequent shopper or a window shopper.  

Every single day I use multiple apps like Whatsapp, Instagram, Google maps, Inshorts news app among others. I become extremely cautious or hesitant when it comes to financial apps whether to pay bills or transfer money. I don’t like to use third party financial apps or wallets like Paytm, Tez or similar apps. I tend to stick to the actual bank apps for any kind of financial transaction. I fear that the transaction could go wrong or I may not get a refund. I have had past experiences, when it was difficult to get a refund for an unsuccessful transaction and that influences my hesitation.

 As a consumer of content, I am more open to read or watch something that I haven’t in the past as long as it falls in the realm of my interest.  But, as a customer, I make decisions even before opening a shopping portal and rarely digress from the original plan. I am more rigid as a user as I spoke earlier about financial apps. I tend to continue the rigid behaviour even for a lot of social networking and communication apps like Snapchat or Truecaller, probably due to all the news about data leak.