I spent the majority of the evening (when I wasn’t bemoaning how overstuffed I was) searching online for the perfect digital camera for my measly allowance of less than $200.
I’ve become a victim of the customer review. If I just based my choice on prices and specs, I’d have made my decision hours ago and would be peacefully slumbering.
But no. I have to read every review, figure out the positives and negatives, and run all over creation in three hours to find the best deal.
Background: I’m going to England this summer. It’s my first trip abroad, and it’s to a place I’ve always loved even though I’ve never seen it. My mum wants to buy a digital camera for me for Christmas, and to me that shows that she’s accepted that I want to go abroad and will help me with whatever I need. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it’s important to me that she back my decision, and though this is a token gesture, it’s still a gesture.
It doesn’t hurt that she’s the one that will be shepherding me all over creation tomorrow.
Why am I so reliant on customer reviews? At what point did I decide that word of mouth wasn’t enough, and I needed to read every review by every gruntled (back formation!!) or disgruntled customer who’d ever purchased an item? I don’t think I’ve ever written a customer review. How many people are totally satisfied with the product but did not feel the need to rave about it? I think the only time I’ve ever written a review was on RateMyProfessors. I hardly think that counts, though.
Am I incapable of making my own decisions? Are we, as a collective consumerist society, incapable of deciding for ourselves which is the best use of our (limited) funds, and instead defer to the comments and criticisms of our peers?
