Name: Mary Beth Dolan

From: Wisconsin

Bio: Internet user, Books to Bytes student

Area of Expertise: Advocate/Voice of the People

Topic: Community/Culture

Headline: Shopping Technology

Nutshell: Shopping will become more streamlined with consumer preference, but people will still want to see items in stores.

Vision: In the future, especially the future of shopping, circumstances we see in a few science fiction movies will become widespread. "Smart House" depicts a fully computerized house. This house improves itself by adapting to user preferences. With each decision the users make, it upgrades itself to provide new services to its occupants. "Minority Report" depicts a society where changing consumer preferences are measured based on past purchase history among other factors and documented to provide specific advertisements and purchase recommendations for people. This could have both positive and negative effects on society: it could expand people’s horizons, but could also make the world more commercialized. However, shopping will not be completely confined to the internet as some people believe. People enjoy going to stores and browsing, looking at items they may not necessarily want at the moment, but may purchase at some point. Overall, shopping in the future will be easier, thanks to consumer-preference technology. However, it will not become completely confined to the internet.

Date Submitted: 10/1/2008