Click Away

The images slid across the screen in a dazzling manner. ‘Who doesn’t like to peruse?,’ she thought. Who doesn’t want to have their purchase options laid out in a row? Who doesn’t like the hunt of the next item to acquire?

What a crazy, new world we live in!

Some girls liked the person-to-person of shopping in a store. Some guys too, at other stores. She never did, though. Just tolerate it, right?

Because… what a sluggish, dreary time it was. You know, when you had to go to a store in person? The mall at least provided fun variety. A wide variety, with food options along the way.

Ah, the “internet of shopping” before the internet.

Well, even that grows stale. Even that grows stale in the face of the future!

Now, we can choose anything. Even if it’s in limbo… between distributors.

The freedom to see what others can’t. The freedom to make instant comparisons. The freedom to not talk to anybody!

There’s always something to find.

You might have to look deeper next time, but there’s always something new to find.

If you forget what the package contains by the time it gets to you, so much the better! Yay, I got something that I wanted before… and am guaranteed to like.

Maybe not exactly what Katy Perry meant by “make it like your birthday, every day.”

But what a victory nonetheless!

She has a method. Her friends may think it’s beyond the pale… but she knows better. Some saw her as joining the system, she saw herself as beating it.

Another perfectly curated cart!

One more check of the list… one more check of the deals… one more check of the bank account….

Wait… WHAT??! She won’t… have enough for rent?

Let me check again…

Crash! Cr-crash, crash. Crash, boom, bang… all around her!

But… but….

But nothing! How did she not know? How did millions of others not know?

It’s the basic rule of economics. Or is that the Hierarchy of Needs? Whichever one, it’s clear. Whatever time you’re in, it’s clear. Sustain shelter first!

Wait, you don’t understand.

The pain she’s in? The regret she has? No, we don’t. But the alarm bells… the collapse of her world…. Oh we can hear it, and we understand!

I had a system.

No, you just had a belief.

Blurg!

So as it all comes tumbling down… well… some irrational thoughts may come to you.

I’ll just return everything else.

Yeah… it begins. It all hits her at once. She hangs her head in shame.

Why did I let it come to this?

Maybe for the same reason everyone else does. At least, those millions of others.

There should only be one more webpage to look up. It will give a telephone number. There should only be only one more telephone number to call.

An addiction help hotline.