Window Shopping vs. Purchasing

Window shopping has probably been around as long as advertising. Part of a creative effort to get us to buy what we want but don't need. It's been extended to the digital realm for many years, and supercharged by social media. Notionally harmless, it is a pleasurable diversion that consumes our attention to little end. When times are tight, it can be the stuff of fantasy - virtual consumption without the need for commitment.

What happens thought when it goes mainstream across forms of commitment that matter? We might get a fleeting moment of virtue by window shopping climate change, or a political party, or a job change and imagining what our life would be if we had them in our lives, but it changes little. It might even act as a form of mitigation - a form of virtual methadone rather than the hit of mainstream commitment.

We might argue the same for 'Influencers". One on hand they can be people of substance, thought leaders and provocateurs who chnge people's minds about something impo…