Every year, the number of online stores is increasing as more and more consumers are choosing to shop over the Internet. This phenomenon has many implications: for the environment, employment levels and for shoppers’ fives in general. What do you consider to be the most important benefits and drawbacks of shopping on the Net? Be sure to support your opinion with examples, reasons, and explanations. The current trend of online shopping is increasing in popularity with the passage of time. Although. there are many positive aspects. to purchasing goods over the Internet, there are some negative. factors that should be taken into consideration. There is.no.doubt.that. the benefits of online shopping are numerous. First and foremost, people can make purchases anytime and anywhere, Online stores are never.closed and this gives you the opportunity to do your shopping around the clock, In addition to this, having the ability to research, _products in the comfort of your own home is a great convenience since you don’t have to use your car to visit a large number of stores. This also affects. the environment in.a positive way as. fewer cars on the roads means less atmospheric pollution. Moreover, online stores are the places where, the best prices are found, Given thet they.do not require window displays and sales staff, prices are significantly lower. Despite these advantages, Internet shopping has some drawbacks, as well, Accuracy and security are the most serious ones, Since. you cannot actually see and touch the, product before vou buy. it, _what arrives in the mail. may.not.be exactly. what you were.expecting. For. example, the color. may. be slightly. different or the quality of the item, may not be.as good as you anticipated. What is.even worse is the matter of shopper security as there have been incidents in the past of hackers who got _hold of customers’ credit card numbers. and charged a lot of. money to their card, Although most sites are secure, there is always a small risk of a security breach, Taking everything into consideration, as far.as convenience and. time saving are concerned, |.am. convinced that the advantages. of online. shopping outweigh. the disadvantages. However, caution must be exercised so as to reduce one’s chances of being cheated.Imagine your best friend is moving to a faraway country and you have been given two choices: you can either spend two weeks with him/her once a year, or write one email to him/her every week. Which would you prefer? Be sure to support your opinion with examples, reasons, and explanations. Long-distance friendships used to be hard to maintain in the past, but nowadays, online _ ity to keep _in touch even when they are miles away _ _..communication gives people the opp lowever, if| had to choose between sending weekly emails to my best friend and _ spending two weeks with them once a year, | would definitely choose can replace spending time with someone you care about. If | could spend two weeks with this friend, it would give us plenty of time to catch up and _ , We would be able to do all the activ we like together, such __ as going on excursions, hanging out at our favorite spots or even just laughing at jokes. We could _ also reminisce about the past and create new memories. - In addition, we would be able to have heart-to-heart discussions, for hours if necessary, about tt uch Intense dialogues are impossible over the Intemet, as youneed lat _troubl to have eye contact and the ability to respond instantly to what the other person is saying. Moreover, some private matters are too sensitive to discuss in an email and true feelings can only__ ‘be expressed in persor _Of course, there is no denying that via email | would be able to find out what was going on in my 3 _...friend! ‘eqular basis and we could share what w. was actually happening, However, | tend to believe that email message cannot, in, general, convey ef To conclude, | would be very sad if a close friend of mine moved far away, but, given the choice, | would certainly opt to visit them for two weeks.a year as this would be the best way to keep our friendship alive.