Final- Down the Rabbit Hole
A theme that stuck with me throughout this semester is how easily one can get “trapped” on the internet from one Google search. The last few months I’ve been tracking my Google searches with books, and for my final I’m going to show how easy it is to get derailed from what should be a simple five minute search.
A book I recently read was “The Kiss of Deception” by Mary E. Pearson. Was this book a series? Was the series finished or was she still writing books? Not knowing this information, I googled her website.
It’s a finished trilogy, and this search would only take a few minutes, but now I want to know if the series remained good or if it fell flat after the first book. For me, I go down this rabbit hole because one time I fell in love with the first book and bought the other four only to hate the rest of the series.
Next search for me would be good reads. After getting to the author/ series page, I’d then read some of the reviews — hoping I don’t read a spoiler — and see if it’s worth it to buy the other two books.
Book two checks out, now book three.
Book three checks out but now I need to see where I can buy the books for a decent price, preferably used and hardcover seeing as my first book is hardcover.
Both of these bookstores are near me, but $20 for hardcover. New to me was the information that BAM now sells used books, unfortunately they’re all paperback but it’s still good information.
Trying to see if I can find a better deal, I’d go to my top online used book websites.
Thrift books is my personal favorite because they have a reward system that allows frequent buyers to receive free books once they reach 500 points and their inventory is always changing. Sometimes the inventory is only new and sometimes a hardcover book can be $3.00.
For comparison, here are Amazon prices.
From comparing these two sites, Amazon would be the way to go price wise.
I found this to be doing something on the internet about the internet because, time wise, these rabbit holes can go from five minutes to several hours. I can throw in a YouTube video discussing the book series, or spend 40 minutes scrolling through other people’s comments on the books to see if I’ll like it. Just looking at price comparisons before purchasing can be an ordeal in and of itself. Now apply this rabbit hole to a generic Google search on “How to Make Spaghetti.” How many results does one look at before choosing a recipe and making it?
Or looking up a walkthrough for a video game and getting completely derailed and losing sight of the initial search. The internet is designed to keep people interested, as seen on “The Social Dilemma,” and wandering minds with endless search potential do just that.
There are over 15 hyperlinks throughout this article leading to different websites and videos, some relevant, some not. How derailing was it for you if you clicked on every single link? Did you end up at the Taylor Swift music video or Shepherd University first?
