How the Internet is changing our lives

"Do you paypal, or do you use cash?"

The other day, I went to Longemont in Zhongshan Park for dinner. After buying a cup of mango ice cream at a mango pie, the shopkeeper asked. When I heard the word "cash," I stared in disbelief. I hadn't used cash in a long time - the thousand dollars in my wallet had been sitting there for two or three months and hadn't dwindled much. While waiting for the mango ice cream, I asked the owner what the ratio of mobile payment (Alipay, WeChat) to cash was. The store owner was very honest and said that 80% of the day's revenue was generated by mobile payment, with cash taking up only 20%. This is very much in line with my life experience. On weekdays, whether I take a taxi, go to a restaurant, or buy clothes, buy breakfast, I am Alipay to pay, is to enter the "cashless" life.

Mobile payment is an extension of e-commerce. When I think about it, my first contact with online shopping was around 2005. At that time, I was in high school. A Bertelsmann book shopping pamphlet was circulating in the class. Where did the pamphlet come from? No one seemed to know. I had a passion for reading at the time, but the bookstores on the street sold mostly exercise books, and there were no good books to buy. The Bertelsmann booklet made me very happy. I chose Wang Xiaobo's novels and the novels of Jelinek, the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature, but the payment method was a pain in the ass and there was no guarantee. To buy books from the Bertelsmann Book Club, I had to send money at the post office and write the number of the book I wanted to buy on a message board. Then I had to wait a week or two for the book to arrive, which was a grueling process. Now, I often think back to the time when I sent money to the post office, why was I not afraid of being cheated? The biggest reason would be that I was too eager for those books to think about anything else.

The Bertelsmann Book Club's book buying experience is not really shopping. The first online shopping in the true sense of the word was during college. This time, it wasn't a book that was bought, but a pullover. At that time, I did not have my own computer, want to go online can only go to the Internet cafe off campus. I placed an order, but could not pay - I do not have Internet banking, and no Alipay. I registered for Alipay, but there was no way to use it. Because you have to associate your bank card with Alipay, you also have to go to the bank to set up online banking. A feature that seems to be taken for granted now, I had to run around for two days to get it fully done.

I used online banking to pay for the first online shopping of my life, but when the money is paid, I have been apprehensive, the money was cheated how to do? So, it has been waiting for the arrival of the courier. Finally, after four or five days, the school courier notified me to collect the courier, get the clothes, I just put my heart down. Since then, e-commerce has become my first choice for shopping. Buying books, clothes and shoes is almost always done online at Taobao, Amazon, Dangdang, etc. Online shopping experiences are few and far between.

Our generation has grown up with the development of the Internet. The new things such as online shopping, although initially skeptical, but after tasting the benefits, they will be embraced with great enthusiasm. And my parents, with little contact with the network, with a smartphone, only to appreciate the convenience and benefits of the Internet. Last year, the county house renovation, I told my parents on the phone, I buy a TV and washing machine online, delivered to the home. My mom refused in one breath for the simple reason that she was afraid that the quality of the ones bought online was not good. By this year, the TV in the old house broke down, and I said I would buy a TV for the family. This time, they took the initiative to say buy online. In just one year, the attitude has changed one hundred and eighty degrees.

The e-commerce from the initial small, to today's habit; from the online payment are worried about fear, to today's full swing "cashless". It can be said that e-commerce has penetrated into all aspects of people's daily lives. Without online shopping, what should we do with our lives?