Max Gutmann shares on how his browsing habits have changed with online shopping.
I used to love browsing library bookshelves. On my way to look for a particular book, I’d scan the shelves and often find things I would never otherwise have discovered. Now, when I want a book from the library, I request it online and go pick it up after it’s been put aside for me.
I could go to the library specifically to browse, or, when I pick up a book, I could make a side trip to the shelves. But intending to browse wouldn’t be the same. It falls into the category of “Things I Value, But Won’t Go Out of My Way to Do.” In lots of ways, technology is taking away the necessity — and with it, the opportunity — to browse.
Online dictionaries, smart speakers, online shopping and various forms of artificial intelligence are making it easier and easier to go right to what we think we want, and never to have to browse. But, of course, we do browse: we browse the internet, one of the “Things We Don’t Value, But Spend A lot of Our Time on Anyway.” Why?
I think there is a human need for exploring, wandering and letting our minds roam aimlessly. This freedom and its occasional happy discoveries benefit us individually and collectively. We’re all better off, for instance, because Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, was willing to explore the mold that had contaminated his experiment, instead of ignoring it to move directly toward the result he thought he wanted.