I have always preferred browsing over scrolling for most things. I love going to malls, stores, small businesses, and even thrift stores, for the fun of the search. However, I do think scrolling has its advantages especially when you are in a pinch for time or a certain store is inaccessible to you.

I chose to search for a new book. I didn’t care what genre, author, or style the book was, as long as it looked interesting. I am a book worm and I can spend hours upon hours in a bookstore, so it was hard for me just to find one.

On the first day of this experiment, I decided to browse first because I have a large bias toward bookstores. The first store I went to was Barnes and Noble in Poughkeepsie. I spent about two hours going through each row and taking my time wandering the store and seeing what covers caught my eye. I noticed in Barnes and Noble that the books that first caught my eye were on display or set aside from the other books on the shelf. For example, each table of books in the front of the store had a cohesive theme, whether that was black history, romance, on-sale fiction, or highlighted classics. This reminded me of how online stores such as amazon push the items they want to sell by displaying them aside from other items. I found Barnes and Noble had an overwhelmingly large selection of books in stock. I took notice of how other customers either were on their phones or quickly grabbed the book they were in search of and left the store. 

The other bookstore I went to was Inquiring Minds Bookstore in New Paltz. These kinds of small business bookstores are my favorite way to buy books. As a person who loves everything neat and organized; I believe a messer bookstore is a better bookstore. I find the organized mess provides an extra element of searching for a book. I also feel there’s nothing that beats the smell of an old bookstore. I spent about another two hours in Inquiring Minds Bookstore. I personally like used books, so I had a blast uncovering all of my findings. I feel bookstores like this allow you to be surprised with what you find, free from expectations.

On the second day of this experiment, I scrolled the internet to see what books would catch my eye. I first went on Amazon and because I bought countless books from there, I was already getting recommendations for books Amazon thinks I would like. While this is a nice feature of online shopping it doesn’t always work. For example, I just recently bought a few textbooks along with book gifts, thus causing my recommendations to be skewed. I found that books on Amazon are a lot cheaper than at a bookstore like  Barnes and Noble. However, in comparison books from thrift bookstores like Inquiring Minds were cheaper than both of the other stores. I found an infinite amount of books that simply no one could go through all of them. Scrolling through Amazon took me about an hour. I was able to find a lot that interested me in a short period of time.

Lastly, I checked out an online thrift book store called ThriftedBooks. This was my first and definitely not the last time I will be using this sight. I spent about an hour on this site. The deals we insane and as little as four dollars. There was a variety of used and new books. You could also select the condition you wish to purchase your book. My only critique is, what qualifies as a good or acceptable standard for thrift books is objective, so there is a bit of a gamble. They also had other categories such as video games, movies, and music I looked through as well.

 This experiment was truly eye-opening in the differences between Browsing vs. Scrolling. I came to the conclusion that for some items like household essentials and everyday products, online shopping is a great resource to have. However, when it comes to items we hold close to our hearts, I think browsing is the best. I learned that there is nothing like holding a book in your hand and thumbing through shelves rather than just scrolling through pictures of covers. There is definitely an intentional connection when browsing for books otherwise not provided through the internet. I am a known wanderer in bookstores so I find that I go up and down every aisle thus discovering finds I would not have seen had I been scrolling for a book on the internet.  For example, I don’t read many psychology or self-help books but I found “​​Thinking Fast And Slow” by Daniel Kahneman really appealed to me.  You never know what you are going to find and who you might meet along the way. Sometimes you won’t find exactly what you are looking for but you might find something even better.  Even though it is time-consuming I believe it is a privilege to browse rather than scroll.