Practice Exam

Online shopping

So far we have started to spend much time on the Internet because we can find every kind of information and services, whatever we want. This Internet gives us lots of opportunities and freedom. Moreover, people have been pretty busy to catch the development of technology and they do not have much time for shopping because everyone knows it is a waste of time, even though we have to buy some necessary stuff. Therefore, many people like to do online shopping because it is a great timesaver (Stay, 2006). Buying online is not only a timesaver but also a money saver. If we buy some stuff, such as books, clothing, and many things, we will spend less money than buying from shopping because there are many online shopping sites and the always offer lower prices.

Nonetheless, even though online shopping has many advantages, it is quite dangerous and risky. Robertson (2006) said, “According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, there were over 205,000 complaints of Internet commerce-related fraud reported in 2004” (para. 2). As he said, it is not only a problem, but also there are many disadvantages and these depend on online shopping or products.

 

First, the most common danger is to have a credit card information stolen. Therefore, when we do online buying, we should be careful and we should be sure about the security of that online shopping site because it is impossible to check all these online shopping sites. According to the Mulrean (2008), “Consumers’ biggest fear about shopping online was the possibility of having their credit-card number stolen… Credit-card companies lose about $1 billion a year to credit-card fraud” (paras. 5-8).

 

Second, sometimes it is difficult to buy good products from shopping online, because we do not know the quality of products from a long distance, especially when I buy some clothing, I always have a problem to choose the right size and color. Even though we see the picture of that product before ordering online, it is possible to receive unexpected products, which are different from what we want to buy. The problem is picture because I think the picture cannot show us the real object. For this reason, sometimes we spend more time and money to return that product than going to the shopping center.

 

Last, shopping is fun, especially for women because we do shopping not only to buy product but also to spend time with our friends. Therefore, it is a kind of way of reducing our stress. If we do everything online, we will stop to communicating with people and we will spend all our time in the cyber world, which is not the real world. This is dangerous because we have started to lose our civilization by doing everything on the Internet.

 

In conclusion, even though buying online is convenient, it is not the right solution to save our time and money because it has many negative consequences. We should go shopping and communicate with people, instead of sitting the front of the computer. Even though it is a waste of the time, it might protect our money from fraud.

 Reference:

Robertson, C. (2006, Jan 03). Stay safe while shopping online. Majon International.   Retrieved Dec 04, 2008. from http://www.majon.com/articles/

Mulrean, J. (2008, March 12). Protect Yourself. MSN Money. Retrieved Dec 04, 2008. from http://www.moneycentral.msn.com/content/