True to my oppositional nature, I did the experiments in reverse order. I spent last Saturday afternoon browsing vintage shops and craft markets for about 2 hours, and then scrolled on Wednesday for about an hour. I enjoyed browsing more as I am more interested in objects when I can touch them, smell them, and view them from multiple perspectives, as well as observe the context they are in.

I ended up purchasing a beautiful quilt decorated with designs of cats from the Marketplace on James in Syracuse, NY, and didn’t realize until I returned to New Paltz that it was labeled as a limited edition throw. I wondered if I could find its counterparts online, so I began to scroll.

This proved to be almost impossible, countering my expectation that browsing is more frustrating as it takes more time and effort to find objects. I personally found scrolling the internet to be harder, even though I used the search engine to my best efforts. I first tried to use key words (“limited edition cat throw”) to find information about my new quilt, but no results matched mine. I then used a reverse image search of a photo of the blanket, but still found no exact matches. I finally tried a reverse image search of the label on the back of the quilt, and found a different quilt on eBay that had a similar label, possibly produced by the same maker or guild. Unfortunately, there was no information there that could help me. 

Based on my experiments browsing and scrolling, I found browsing to be more fulfilling. Since there is no specific thing I’m looking for when I go browsing, the experience itself is rewarding even if I don’t end up purchasing anything. When scrolling, there is usually an end goal, and I get frustrated if I cannot reach it. However, I think that browsing is a luxury; most people cannot afford to spent time on something that may not provide results. Scrolling is generally faster to provide results, even if the results aren’t exactly what you’re looking for. But I think this makes it easier to miss information, since the top results of a Google search are usually the only ones that people click on. We don’t realize that there are thousands of results, one of which could be more relevant to the query. This is what browsing allows: aimless wandering through objects until something truly interesting catches your eye. I think both have their benefits, but if you have time, browsing will provide a more personally rewarding experience.