How Does the Internet Affect the Moving Process?
The internet affects almost everything in our lives today. If we see or hear something we have not heard about, we Google it. If there are news and rumours we want to check, we Bing them. And if there is entertainment to be found, we Yahoo! it. Thanks to the internet, everything seems to be handed to us on a silver platter, and yet there is so much more held back, and still a lot of searching to be done. Half the ‘hits’ we find are only half-possible to be a reliable source of information and so there is always more searching to be done before the information we seek is both found and confirmed. But how does all this affect you when you are in the midst of a relocation? Does the internet have any effect at all that concerns you when you have to move? Of course it does.
If you think about it, the hardest thing about relocations once upon a time was finding the right people to help you. But even then all you had to do was ask a friend or neighbour for a good removal company and then you hire that moving company based on the recommendation you receive. And if you didn’t have a good company in mind, you only needed to rent a moving van and call your friends over to begin the relocation.
Today’s world of moving is much more different. If you Google ‘moving company’, even if you add a regional restriction to the search, you will still get at least ten recommendations, and then you have to double-check them all for successful jobs and even ask around if somebody knows them and how good they are. And if you still can’t find any answers, you will have to go to the company’s office and ask for insurance details and a comprehensive estimate of the cost. And all the while you will be showered with ‘special offers’ and ‘exclusive deals’ by all the rest of the companies you have checked in with.
And, ironically, even with today’s social media, the world has actually become much less social than before. Yes, with your 1,716 friends on Facebook, you definitely know more faces, but with how many of them have you shared a pint at the local pub? People now have two lives to live – a real social one and an online one, and they often sacrifice time from the real one to spend more time in front of their screens. That is usually the reason why you can no longer pick up the phone and call ten mates to help you with a free move rather than researching and dealing with all the moving companies.
And the internet’s biggest crime against its relocating users is that people do much less to help themselves with the moving process. They will seek to pack less and Google more things like ’45 Easy Ways to Easy Packing’. They won’t go out to see what the local companies offer to have a safer range of choices, but rather search all the options online and settle for the best-looking deals. They will waste time on reading through a hundred tips and self-help advices online, but won’t spare a single thought on how to help themselves the way they want it and not how the internet offers.
How does the internet affect the moving process?
Occasionally, it makes it easier as you find all your available choices and have to pick from them. But more often than not, and especially in the case of lazier people, it gets in the way. People look at the ‘whys’ and not the ‘hows’. They look at ‘how much’ and not ‘how safe’. They now seek options and not recommendations as today’s recommendations are only as reliable as is their source. The best way to deal with it all? Check your options online, but always trust in yourself more. Don’t let the internet tell you what to do or how to do it, you discover that for yourself and have a safe and successful move
