That they prefer people shopping on a mobile phone probably partly explains why I hate the experience of shopping on a mobile phone. With more limited display and input options, they have more...
That they prefer people shopping on a mobile phone probably partly explains why I hate the experience of shopping on a mobile phone. With more limited display and input options, they have more control over what is displayed and how it gets displayed and how to get other information to show up on the display. Often when I use my phone for shopping or such, I feel like I'm missing out on something, like there's information not being shown to me that would be more visible to me on my desktop and to get access to that information is more tedious.
I can also acknowledge it's just partly me not being young anymore and not adapting as easily. I don't like using my phone for much of anything if I have the option to do something else, the fact that I'm basically a hermit means I do generally have the option to use my desktop over my phone, so I get this negative experience when interacting with my phone where it feels inadequate. The only thing it does better than my desktop is fit in my pocket and always be within arms reach regardless of where I'm at, and I sense the inferiority of it in all other aspects every time I interact with it.
Agreed, desktop is by nature a better experience, you get more information and can more easily compare products side by side. I especially resonate with the article saying people don’t like using...
Agreed, desktop is by nature a better experience, you get more information and can more easily compare products side by side.
I especially resonate with the article saying people don’t like using their phones for large purchases. I absolutely couldn’t imagine buying a flight on my phone, too many chances to fat finger on the touch screen keyboard. Not to mention actually planning a trip would be near impossible using apps.
I’ve gotten to the point where I refuse to install apps for shopping, too many retailers and restaurants have decided they each need an app. Unfortunately that means I simply can’t order from some places (which is mind boggling).
We spent years making browsers powerful tools with tabbed browsing and other things essential for sane web navigation...and now we're stuck inside siloed apps that show you one thing at a time and...
We spent years making browsers powerful tools with tabbed browsing and other things essential for sane web navigation...and now we're stuck inside siloed apps that show you one thing at a time and prevent you from even copying text or obtaining a permanent link back to the thing you were looking at.
On iOS at least copy blocking can be worked around by taking a screenshot and taking advantage of the system’s auto-OCR which will allow you to highlight the desired text and copy it. Workarounds...
On iOS at least copy blocking can be worked around by taking a screenshot and taking advantage of the system’s auto-OCR which will allow you to highlight the desired text and copy it.
Workarounds like that shouldn’t be necessary though.
I feel this way as well, I work from home on my desktop, so i have easy and ample availability to use my desktop to make purchases and I also refuse to install apps for stores. I recently had to...
I feel this way as well, I work from home on my desktop, so i have easy and ample availability to use my desktop to make purchases and I also refuse to install apps for stores. I recently had to install an app in order to go to a concert and I was quite annoyed. The app immediately started a campaign of obnoxious push notifications as well as email spam (as expected).
How common is this? I don't eat out much, so maybe I just lack the experience, but I would be flabbergasted if I couldn't just tell my order to the waiter.
[Not installing an app] means I simply can’t order from some places
How common is this? I don't eat out much, so maybe I just lack the experience, but I would be flabbergasted if I couldn't just tell my order to the waiter.
The case I was specifically referring to is wanting to place an online order, but the website forces you to download the app instead of letting you browse a menu and order on the website. I've run...
The case I was specifically referring to is wanting to place an online order, but the website forces you to download the app instead of letting you browse a menu and order on the website. I've run into this a number of times.
That said, I have been to places that require a smartphone to scan a QR code menu in the restaurant, and on the extreme side I've been to 1 bubble tea place that you had to download chowbus to place an order, even inside the restaurant.
Two years ago I was downtown for a convention which started Thursday. On Wednesday night, due to stuff that happened, I found myself after hours and hungry with my only options for food an...
Two years ago I was downtown for a convention which started Thursday. On Wednesday night, due to stuff that happened, I found myself after hours and hungry with my only options for food an overpriced hotel gift shop salad, or a nightclub-esque bar food place that was next to the hotel. Everything else was closed. The next night, not only would everything be open (this convention is extremely large) but there'd be street food carts too. But on Wednesday, no.
I walk in and ask for a to-go order. Sure, they'll do that. But they don't have menus. Just QR codes. Look, all I want is a chicken tender plate that you dump in the to-go box. No, they can't do that, I have to scan the code and log into their website and make an account and order through that so it goes to the kitchen so they know to make it and buzz the hostess that it's ready so she can pick it up and bring it to me.
I asked her if she could just order it, and I'd pay her direct. Nope. Can the manager or one of the bartenders order it? I have money. Cash. Nope. Is there really no way to order food from a restaurant while I'm physically standing in the restaurant?
Apparently the answer was no.
So I walked out and paid $22 for a salad sitting in the fridge of the hotel gift shop.
I really feel like in another twenty years we're going to be living in a world where physical reality is this eye-opening "what you talking about Willis" thing for the kids. Where they hear about "cash" or "menu" or "discs" or "books", anything that you hold in your hand which isn't a phone, and will call bullshit because they have no context to believe in a world that isn't 99% digital except for their need to go to the bathroom.
I’m heading to China with my wife this summer, and am very worried for situations similar to this. In China, ordering and paying for things is done with WeChat almost everywhere. It’s very...
I’m heading to China with my wife this summer, and am very worried for situations similar to this. In China, ordering and paying for things is done with WeChat almost everywhere. It’s very difficult to use cash (& credit cards) to purchase things. Even pan handlers have QR codes.
When I last visited this wasn’t a huge issue because my family could transfer money to my WeChat so I could buy stuff (foreigners have no way to add money to their own account, only Chinese bank accounts can, which foreigners cannot open).
Now, the Chinese government no longer allows foreigners to receive money transfers, so there’s literally no way for a foreigner to purchase things. I won’t be able to shop in stores or restaurants, use vending machines, order taxis (requires Didi app, which requires Chinese phone number, which foreigners can’t have), etc. Pretty dystopian tech dependency.
What is the incentive for the Chinese government to make it this way? Do they not want tourists or foreigners coming in? The situation it was before, it makes some sense from an authoritarian...
Now, the Chinese government no longer allows foreigners to receive money transfers, so there’s literally no way for a foreigner to purchase things. I won’t be able to shop in stores or restaurants, use vending machines, order taxis (requires Didi app, which requires Chinese phone number, which foreigners can’t have), etc. Pretty dystopian tech dependency.
What is the incentive for the Chinese government to make it this way? Do they not want tourists or foreigners coming in? The situation it was before, it makes some sense from an authoritarian regime to have those types of restrictions presumably because they can track fund transfers so its perhaps a bit of data about their own citizens and who their citizens associate with, but to outright prevent it altogether, I wonder what the government gains from that.
I think it is a clear message they don't want foreigners in the country. My gut feeling is Xi wants to return China to a closed off country, hard for people to enter, and (most importantly) hard...
I think it is a clear message they don't want foreigners in the country. My gut feeling is Xi wants to return China to a closed off country, hard for people to enter, and (most importantly) hard for people to exit.
And yeah, you're right on the money. Making everyone pay, shop, communicate, get news, etc through one government controlled, censored app (WeChat) ensures they know exactly what the population is doing.
You realise that, specifically to encourage incoming tourists, Wechat and Alipay both now accept foreign credit cards?...
I think it is a clear message they don't want foreigners in the country. My gut feeling is Xi wants to return China to a closed off country, hard for people to enter, and (most importantly) hard for people to exit.
You realise that, specifically to encourage incoming tourists, Wechat and Alipay both now accept foreign credit cards?
I wanted to type a whole rant about how cramped mobile interfaces are terrible and require so much more scrolling and navigating annoying submenus… then I accidentally triggered some iOS gesture...
I wanted to type a whole rant about how cramped mobile interfaces are terrible and require so much more scrolling and navigating annoying submenus… then I accidentally triggered some iOS gesture that reloaded the website and my whole post was gone. LOL.
I have constant issues with this on Android, but it's switching between apps that is the issue. I have an older phone that came with very little storage (I cheaped out and bought a lower storage...
I have constant issues with this on Android, but it's switching between apps that is the issue. I have an older phone that came with very little storage (I cheaped out and bought a lower storage option and have come to regret it) and the OS and system files takes up more than half of what I do have, so I'm perpetually operating on low storage, which means that Android sleeps apps when they're not in use very aggressively. Sometimes if I just swap to my password vault to authenticate, when I come back the app or site I was in will refresh. It's maddening...
I've also been on sites that detect when the browser app loses focus and clear the form data. Absolutely bonkers. I have to open my pw manager and Chrome in splitscreen to copy and paste. Infuriating.
I've also been on sites that detect when the browser app loses focus and clear the form data. Absolutely bonkers. I have to open my pw manager and Chrome in splitscreen to copy and paste. Infuriating.
This has happened to me and I agree that it's intensely annoying. On my desktop computer (alert: millennial dinosaur), I hate when form devs choose to block ctrl-v to let me paste in a password...
This has happened to me and I agree that it's intensely annoying. On my desktop computer (alert: millennial dinosaur), I hate when form devs choose to block ctrl-v to let me paste in a password from my password manager. I feel like someone is just doing some security theatre and making it way more likely that I make a mistake. Bonus points if you can't make the input visible either so you have to type special characters and hope and pray that you don't fat-finger the wrong one.
The Ctrl-V block can often be sidestepped with an extension (at least for Chrome and Firefox) called Don't Fuck with Paste - that's been a huge lifesaver for me.
The Ctrl-V block can often be sidestepped with an extension (at least for Chrome and Firefox) called Don't Fuck with Paste - that's been a huge lifesaver for me.
I avoid big purchases on my phone, mainly because mobile just feels much less reliable. I mean, half of the websites can't even handle my phone going from light mode to dark mode, so they reload,...
I avoid big purchases on my phone, mainly because mobile just feels much less reliable. I mean, half of the websites can't even handle my phone going from light mode to dark mode, so they reload, losing everything I've typed into there (I don't actually know if it's a website issue or a Chrome issue). And what if my phone suddenly loses network, or crashes, or the battery dies? No way I'm trusting that thing with my money
This is me, almost to a T. I have the added bit of an Ad Blocker on my main browser that keeps my web experience much more sanitised. But the gist is that I have Password Manager available and can...
She uses browser extensions to search for coupons and maximize credit-card benefits. It’s also easier for her to fill in her credit-card information with her computer in front of her and her password manager on hand, she says. And she can more easily double-check her calendar when booking flights.
This is me, almost to a T. I have the added bit of an Ad Blocker on my main browser that keeps my web experience much more sanitised. But the gist is that I have Password Manager available and can take the time to really consider my options, as opposed to the “gotta-go-fast” mantra of mobile.
I use a combination of desktop Firefox with the uBlock Origin extension. Depending on how much into the weeds you want to get into, it can block nearly every ad tracker you can think of. Works...
I use a combination of desktop Firefox with the uBlock Origin extension. Depending on how much into the weeds you want to get into, it can block nearly every ad tracker you can think of. Works great out of the box, though.
I'd be curious to how many of us in this thread are over 25. As I understand it, most younger people will use their phones for everything and won't even have a computer at all, which is entirely...
I'd be curious to how many of us in this thread are over 25.
As I understand it, most younger people will use their phones for everything and won't even have a computer at all, which is entirely alien to me. I bought a lighter laptop that was pretty much a lateral upgrade from my old machine, just so I could take it more places with me, like a security blanket. Even if I'm pretty sure I'm not going to use it at all, I'll still bring it (such as I did on a recent international trip, where I only used my phone).
So the question is: will this style of thought die out? Do we think younger people will make the move towards a proper computer as they age or will using a full blown computer of any sort become an "old person" thing?
Gen Z here: from what I've seen from my peers, if they don't have a laptop, they at least have a tablet of some kind and they tend to use those for shopping for big things if they're an option....
Gen Z here: from what I've seen from my peers, if they don't have a laptop, they at least have a tablet of some kind and they tend to use those for shopping for big things if they're an option. The feeling is definitely less prevalent, though. Ironically my Gen X mother only ever shops on her phone lol.
Only time will tell, but something that I believe may be a factor is that younger people don’t tend to take shopping as seriously because they haven’t had to take it seriously, with most purchases...
Only time will tell, but something that I believe may be a factor is that younger people don’t tend to take shopping as seriously because they haven’t had to take it seriously, with most purchases being based in desires rather than needs with things like quality and durability taking a back seat to fashionability and social approval. As this generation ages, I believe some number will take up more thoughtful shopping habits, which necessitate shopping on a computer.
At least, that’s what I saw in myself. As I aged and became independent, I started spending more time researching, doing price comparisons, etc because value became more important when it was entirely my own money that was being spent and I had grown tired of things breaking or having irritating papercuts. Naturally, this made using a computer for shopping more important for non-trivial purchases. I’m in my mid-30s though, so maybe there’s aspects of Gen Z which I don’t have a good understanding of.
19 year old university student here, i personally have multiple backups of everything and primarily use a laptop in the dormitory, its extremely rare to see a laptop there (and from a few ip scans...
19 year old university student here, i personally have multiple backups of everything and primarily use a laptop in the dormitory, its extremely rare to see a laptop there (and from a few ip scans i've done on the shared wifi, there's ~19 students with a windows or mac machine in the whole university with 2k students).
I don't get how they get by with just a phone, i have a full TWRP backup of my phone on my laptop, backup of my important files on a external hard drive, backup of the most important files and files i may need to access without further notice on a private server, yet their lack of fear on how easily their daily device can break is baffling to me.
It can break, but it's pretty unlikely anyone loses data. If they're on iPhone, they have iCloud backups of their entire device they can restore to. If they on android, most people use software...
yet their lack of fear on how easily their daily device can break is baffling to me.
It can break, but it's pretty unlikely anyone loses data. If they're on iPhone, they have iCloud backups of their entire device they can restore to. If they on android, most people use software that uploads to the cloud. They'd probably write those papers on the google docs app, for instance.
Sure, google could also lose their documents at the same time as the break their phone, but you could also get struck by lightning.
How do they write papers? Computer lab? Voice dictate on their phones and then format on a shared computer? Or like the other commenter suggested, tablets with addon keyboards?
How do they write papers? Computer lab? Voice dictate on their phones and then format on a shared computer? Or like the other commenter suggested, tablets with addon keyboards?
It sounds very bizarre to me. I was in college as an older student only about three years ago, and everyone definitely had laptops. (Doubly so for all of the engineering and science students.) The...
It sounds very bizarre to me. I was in college as an older student only about three years ago, and everyone definitely had laptops. (Doubly so for all of the engineering and science students.) The biggest issue you'd have is freshmen not having a clue how to do basic file management or do things outside of Google apps, but they at least got the memo that a laptop would be required.
Most students here have laptops as well. I'm actually wondering if it's a particular type of school, and if the previous poster's clever IT hack didn't actually give full correct information. (Why...
Most students here have laptops as well. I'm actually wondering if it's a particular type of school, and if the previous poster's clever IT hack didn't actually give full correct information. (Why wouldn't it show staff laptops for example)
ETA: just saw their follow up post, basically everything I just said so... This was superfluous. Don't mind me
You guessed it, write the content on phone, get a friends laptop or go to the uni's computer lab, format and finalize. It is weird but some of the other students just accept that they may spend at...
You guessed it, write the content on phone, get a friends laptop or go to the uni's computer lab, format and finalize.
It is weird but some of the other students just accept that they may spend at the computer lab (which is open 8am to 8pm)
The things they may need a computer for are all accessible at the uni.
I think i should have mentioned this is a medical sciences uni, nurses, emergency service students, operating room students, and general doctors don't need a PC too much, and can do most things albeit with a bit more effort on tablets and phones (medical science courses in Iran may be a tad different from what is the norm)
I fear i have a highly incorrect count of the amount of laptops aswell, so please excuse me for giving wrong statistics.
The push for mobile here is not really surprising. By their very nature and by the mindset of the software built around the two mainstream mobile os's the smartphones are optimized for...
The push for mobile here is not really surprising.
By their very nature and by the mindset of the software built around the two mainstream mobile os's the smartphones are optimized for distraction, hasty and and low-information decisions.
In contrast desktop systems or laptops are more likely to be used in comfortable setting. Even the Windows is not yet truly on the level of a mobile os though it really tries to get there. The form factor and the way information is presented means it encourages deliberate decisions more.
Online shopping seems like one of the things where more friction is actually beneficial for the end user which is why I personally also dislike all of the one click purchase options and such.
Then they should make the mobile experience better. Don't take up 2/3 of my limited screen space asking about cookies and forcing me to give you my fake email address in exchange for a 10% off coupon.
Then they should make the mobile experience better. Don't take up 2/3 of my limited screen space asking about cookies and forcing me to give you my fake email address in exchange for a 10% off coupon.
The subtext of the article basically reads "people make more impulse purchases on their phones and are looking for ways to encourage impulse purchases." While I find this entirely unsurprising,...
The subtext of the article basically reads "people make more impulse purchases on their phones and are looking for ways to encourage impulse purchases." While I find this entirely unsurprising, why does it need all the fluff and dressing? It feels like the author didn't want to admit this is clearly manipulative behavior and spell it out in clear words. Then again, it's the WSJ, so I guess it's gonna be a bit pro-company/capitalism.
That they prefer people shopping on a mobile phone probably partly explains why I hate the experience of shopping on a mobile phone. With more limited display and input options, they have more control over what is displayed and how it gets displayed and how to get other information to show up on the display. Often when I use my phone for shopping or such, I feel like I'm missing out on something, like there's information not being shown to me that would be more visible to me on my desktop and to get access to that information is more tedious.
I can also acknowledge it's just partly me not being young anymore and not adapting as easily. I don't like using my phone for much of anything if I have the option to do something else, the fact that I'm basically a hermit means I do generally have the option to use my desktop over my phone, so I get this negative experience when interacting with my phone where it feels inadequate. The only thing it does better than my desktop is fit in my pocket and always be within arms reach regardless of where I'm at, and I sense the inferiority of it in all other aspects every time I interact with it.
Agreed, desktop is by nature a better experience, you get more information and can more easily compare products side by side.
I especially resonate with the article saying people don’t like using their phones for large purchases. I absolutely couldn’t imagine buying a flight on my phone, too many chances to fat finger on the touch screen keyboard. Not to mention actually planning a trip would be near impossible using apps.
I’ve gotten to the point where I refuse to install apps for shopping, too many retailers and restaurants have decided they each need an app. Unfortunately that means I simply can’t order from some places (which is mind boggling).
We spent years making browsers powerful tools with tabbed browsing and other things essential for sane web navigation...and now we're stuck inside siloed apps that show you one thing at a time and prevent you from even copying text or obtaining a permanent link back to the thing you were looking at.
That's the macro-enshittification.
On iOS at least copy blocking can be worked around by taking a screenshot and taking advantage of the system’s auto-OCR which will allow you to highlight the desired text and copy it.
Workarounds like that shouldn’t be necessary though.
You should be able to do that with Lens on Android phones as well, in my experience.
On my pixel, you don't even have to screenshot. If you pull up the overview/recent apps view, you can use the OCR feature to select text
I feel this way as well, I work from home on my desktop, so i have easy and ample availability to use my desktop to make purchases and I also refuse to install apps for stores. I recently had to install an app in order to go to a concert and I was quite annoyed. The app immediately started a campaign of obnoxious push notifications as well as email spam (as expected).
How common is this? I don't eat out much, so maybe I just lack the experience, but I would be flabbergasted if I couldn't just tell my order to the waiter.
The case I was specifically referring to is wanting to place an online order, but the website forces you to download the app instead of letting you browse a menu and order on the website. I've run into this a number of times.
That said, I have been to places that require a smartphone to scan a QR code menu in the restaurant, and on the extreme side I've been to 1 bubble tea place that you had to download chowbus to place an order, even inside the restaurant.
Two years ago I was downtown for a convention which started Thursday. On Wednesday night, due to stuff that happened, I found myself after hours and hungry with my only options for food an overpriced hotel gift shop salad, or a nightclub-esque bar food place that was next to the hotel. Everything else was closed. The next night, not only would everything be open (this convention is extremely large) but there'd be street food carts too. But on Wednesday, no.
I walk in and ask for a to-go order. Sure, they'll do that. But they don't have menus. Just QR codes. Look, all I want is a chicken tender plate that you dump in the to-go box. No, they can't do that, I have to scan the code and log into their website and make an account and order through that so it goes to the kitchen so they know to make it and buzz the hostess that it's ready so she can pick it up and bring it to me.
I asked her if she could just order it, and I'd pay her direct. Nope. Can the manager or one of the bartenders order it? I have money. Cash. Nope. Is there really no way to order food from a restaurant while I'm physically standing in the restaurant?
Apparently the answer was no.
So I walked out and paid $22 for a salad sitting in the fridge of the hotel gift shop.
I really feel like in another twenty years we're going to be living in a world where physical reality is this eye-opening "what you talking about Willis" thing for the kids. Where they hear about "cash" or "menu" or "discs" or "books", anything that you hold in your hand which isn't a phone, and will call bullshit because they have no context to believe in a world that isn't 99% digital except for their need to go to the bathroom.
Don't grow up. It's a trap.
I’m heading to China with my wife this summer, and am very worried for situations similar to this. In China, ordering and paying for things is done with WeChat almost everywhere. It’s very difficult to use cash (& credit cards) to purchase things. Even pan handlers have QR codes.
When I last visited this wasn’t a huge issue because my family could transfer money to my WeChat so I could buy stuff (foreigners have no way to add money to their own account, only Chinese bank accounts can, which foreigners cannot open).
Now, the Chinese government no longer allows foreigners to receive money transfers, so there’s literally no way for a foreigner to purchase things. I won’t be able to shop in stores or restaurants, use vending machines, order taxis (requires Didi app, which requires Chinese phone number, which foreigners can’t have), etc. Pretty dystopian tech dependency.
What is the incentive for the Chinese government to make it this way? Do they not want tourists or foreigners coming in? The situation it was before, it makes some sense from an authoritarian regime to have those types of restrictions presumably because they can track fund transfers so its perhaps a bit of data about their own citizens and who their citizens associate with, but to outright prevent it altogether, I wonder what the government gains from that.
I think it is a clear message they don't want foreigners in the country. My gut feeling is Xi wants to return China to a closed off country, hard for people to enter, and (most importantly) hard for people to exit.
And yeah, you're right on the money. Making everyone pay, shop, communicate, get news, etc through one government controlled, censored app (WeChat) ensures they know exactly what the population is doing.
You realise that, specifically to encourage incoming tourists, Wechat and Alipay both now accept foreign credit cards?
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/21/tech/china-alipay-wechat-pay-international-credit-cards-intl-hnk/index.html
No actually had no idea, that's good to hear. Last time I was there in 2018 that wasn't the case.
I would rather go hungry than do that.
It's not uncommon. You can't order from McDonald's remotely without their app.
I wanted to type a whole rant about how cramped mobile interfaces are terrible and require so much more scrolling and navigating annoying submenus… then I accidentally triggered some iOS gesture that reloaded the website and my whole post was gone. LOL.
I have constant issues with this on Android, but it's switching between apps that is the issue. I have an older phone that came with very little storage (I cheaped out and bought a lower storage option and have come to regret it) and the OS and system files takes up more than half of what I do have, so I'm perpetually operating on low storage, which means that Android sleeps apps when they're not in use very aggressively. Sometimes if I just swap to my password vault to authenticate, when I come back the app or site I was in will refresh. It's maddening...
I've also been on sites that detect when the browser app loses focus and clear the form data. Absolutely bonkers. I have to open my pw manager and Chrome in splitscreen to copy and paste. Infuriating.
This has happened to me and I agree that it's intensely annoying. On my desktop computer (alert: millennial dinosaur), I hate when form devs choose to block ctrl-v to let me paste in a password from my password manager. I feel like someone is just doing some security theatre and making it way more likely that I make a mistake. Bonus points if you can't make the input visible either so you have to type special characters and hope and pray that you don't fat-finger the wrong one.
The Ctrl-V block can often be sidestepped with an extension (at least for Chrome and Firefox) called Don't Fuck with Paste - that's been a huge lifesaver for me.
Many, many thanks! I will definitely give this one a go.
I avoid big purchases on my phone, mainly because mobile just feels much less reliable. I mean, half of the websites can't even handle my phone going from light mode to dark mode, so they reload, losing everything I've typed into there (I don't actually know if it's a website issue or a Chrome issue). And what if my phone suddenly loses network, or crashes, or the battery dies? No way I'm trusting that thing with my money
This is me, almost to a T. I have the added bit of an Ad Blocker on my main browser that keeps my web experience much more sanitised. But the gist is that I have Password Manager available and can take the time to really consider my options, as opposed to the “gotta-go-fast” mantra of mobile.
What’s that browser extension?
Honey etc. the tradeoff is they track your purchases to sell that data for profit.
I use a combination of desktop Firefox with the uBlock Origin extension. Depending on how much into the weeds you want to get into, it can block nearly every ad tracker you can think of. Works great out of the box, though.
I'd be curious to how many of us in this thread are over 25.
As I understand it, most younger people will use their phones for everything and won't even have a computer at all, which is entirely alien to me. I bought a lighter laptop that was pretty much a lateral upgrade from my old machine, just so I could take it more places with me, like a security blanket. Even if I'm pretty sure I'm not going to use it at all, I'll still bring it (such as I did on a recent international trip, where I only used my phone).
So the question is: will this style of thought die out? Do we think younger people will make the move towards a proper computer as they age or will using a full blown computer of any sort become an "old person" thing?
Gen Z here: from what I've seen from my peers, if they don't have a laptop, they at least have a tablet of some kind and they tend to use those for shopping for big things if they're an option. The feeling is definitely less prevalent, though. Ironically my Gen X mother only ever shops on her phone lol.
Only time will tell, but something that I believe may be a factor is that younger people don’t tend to take shopping as seriously because they haven’t had to take it seriously, with most purchases being based in desires rather than needs with things like quality and durability taking a back seat to fashionability and social approval. As this generation ages, I believe some number will take up more thoughtful shopping habits, which necessitate shopping on a computer.
At least, that’s what I saw in myself. As I aged and became independent, I started spending more time researching, doing price comparisons, etc because value became more important when it was entirely my own money that was being spent and I had grown tired of things breaking or having irritating papercuts. Naturally, this made using a computer for shopping more important for non-trivial purchases. I’m in my mid-30s though, so maybe there’s aspects of Gen Z which I don’t have a good understanding of.
19 year old university student here, i personally have multiple backups of everything and primarily use a laptop in the dormitory, its extremely rare to see a laptop there (and from a few ip scans i've done on the shared wifi, there's ~19 students with a windows or mac machine in the whole university with 2k students).
I don't get how they get by with just a phone, i have a full TWRP backup of my phone on my laptop, backup of my important files on a external hard drive, backup of the most important files and files i may need to access without further notice on a private server, yet their lack of fear on how easily their daily device can break is baffling to me.
It can break, but it's pretty unlikely anyone loses data. If they're on iPhone, they have iCloud backups of their entire device they can restore to. If they on android, most people use software that uploads to the cloud. They'd probably write those papers on the google docs app, for instance.
Sure, google could also lose their documents at the same time as the break their phone, but you could also get struck by lightning.
How do they write papers? Computer lab? Voice dictate on their phones and then format on a shared computer? Or like the other commenter suggested, tablets with addon keyboards?
It sounds very bizarre to me. I was in college as an older student only about three years ago, and everyone definitely had laptops. (Doubly so for all of the engineering and science students.) The biggest issue you'd have is freshmen not having a clue how to do basic file management or do things outside of Google apps, but they at least got the memo that a laptop would be required.
Most students here have laptops as well. I'm actually wondering if it's a particular type of school, and if the previous poster's clever IT hack didn't actually give full correct information. (Why wouldn't it show staff laptops for example)
ETA: just saw their follow up post, basically everything I just said so... This was superfluous. Don't mind me
You guessed it, write the content on phone, get a friends laptop or go to the uni's computer lab, format and finalize.
It is weird but some of the other students just accept that they may spend at the computer lab (which is open 8am to 8pm)
The things they may need a computer for are all accessible at the uni.
I think i should have mentioned this is a medical sciences uni, nurses, emergency service students, operating room students, and general doctors don't need a PC too much, and can do most things albeit with a bit more effort on tablets and phones (medical science courses in Iran may be a tad different from what is the norm)
I fear i have a highly incorrect count of the amount of laptops aswell, so please excuse me for giving wrong statistics.
Archive.is link: https://archive.is/VdH7s
The push for mobile here is not really surprising.
By their very nature and by the mindset of the software built around the two mainstream mobile os's the smartphones are optimized for distraction, hasty and and low-information decisions.
In contrast desktop systems or laptops are more likely to be used in comfortable setting. Even the Windows is not yet truly on the level of a mobile os though it really tries to get there. The form factor and the way information is presented means it encourages deliberate decisions more.
Online shopping seems like one of the things where more friction is actually beneficial for the end user which is why I personally also dislike all of the one click purchase options and such.
Then they should make the mobile experience better. Don't take up 2/3 of my limited screen space asking about cookies and forcing me to give you my fake email address in exchange for a 10% off coupon.
The subtext of the article basically reads "people make more impulse purchases on their phones and are looking for ways to encourage impulse purchases." While I find this entirely unsurprising, why does it need all the fluff and dressing? It feels like the author didn't want to admit this is clearly manipulative behavior and spell it out in clear words. Then again, it's the WSJ, so I guess it's gonna be a bit pro-company/capitalism.