"Dear e-commerce and m-commerce, you have my social life!"

 I still remember the day I joined Orkut. Of course, many of you here wouldn't even remember what Orkut was. Anyway, I was excited beyond words. I could connect with people, make new friends. There were endless possibilities! Cut to 2020. Here I am at home, attending online, doing an internship online, and connecting with my friends through Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook. Gone are the days when I had to ring somebody to talk to them. Today, I can just message them and poof! they would reply right back. I can't' even begin to talk about the ways e-commerce and m-commerce have impacted my social life. 

Like I said, gone are the days where the only way to reconnect with my friends was to call them up and hangout. Now, I can just message them to join me on a video call and the whole gang can have a night out! They can eat, drink, and gossip. They can even watch a movie together. Ask me how? With the arrival of Netflix Party, you just have to use the same code and join Netflix and you and your friends can watch a movie together!

Feel like going shopping? No worries when e-commerce is here! From the comfort of your homes, you can surf through Amazon, Flipkart, and thousand of other sites to find what you want. You can also compare the prices and make the perfect purchase. Feel like getting a new TV but don't have the energy to visit many shops? Why fear, when you can sit right at home, go through many options, compare prices, and then buy the best one.  

Remember when you had to scramble around for change in the pits of your handbag? No right? Me neither. For a long time now, I have had the easiest time paying money. And the answer to my problem? Google Pay. With the invention of apps like Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm, it has become that much simpler to pay money. Went to have food at a restaurant and don't have enough money in hand? Just scan the QR code displayed at the reception and just like that, the bill is paid. As an added bonus, you don't have to worry about robbers and thieves when you are not even carrying any money around. Roaming around wearing jewelry, well, that is an article for another day. 

With this being said we have to understand that it has its bad days as well. With so many people online, you can consider your privacy and safety to be zero. When you make a purchase online, almost all your personal details get etched in the vast and big internet database. You can fall prey to phishing, other scams, and of course, the betrayal of being promised one thing and then getting something that's completely different. These drawbacks have to be kept in mind while you devour the world of e-commerce and m-commerce.

There are no limits to the way technology is progressing. Maybe, when I look back at this article ten years down the line, I may think to myself, "Damn! How much easier has my life become since then!"