Q. shopping is becoming is increasingly popular as a leisure activity. However, some people believe that it has both negative and positive effects. Why is shopping so popular? What effects does its increase in popularity have on individuals and...

These days, there is an increasing tendency among individuals to consider shopping as a mean to acquire pleasure. Many of them tend to spend a great deal of their spare time at shopping malls and browsing e-commerce websites. However, there are both advantages and disadvantages of this trend, and there are various reasons behind this propensity.

To begin with, the principal element behind this development is the scarcity of places which provide people the opportunity to enjoy recreational activities. Therefore, people turn towards mall to spend their time off. Moreover, advanced shopping malls are built in such a fashion that they deliver other joyful activities besides shopping. For instance, most of the malls have food courts where top food chains of the world serve their cuisines. Playing area for children offer multiple games to allure young customers. Another cause behind this predisposition is that many multinational brands have tied up with banks and offer deals and promotions to clients if they shop using their credit and debit cards. These discount packages attract many shoppers and they get engaged in shopping habits.

Albeit, for some shopping might be a way to enhance their mood, but there are many drawbacks of excessive shopping on masses. They are becoming shopaholic, that is getting addicted to shopping and they tend to overspend doing compulsive buying; consequently, they overuse their credit cards and run themselves into heavy debts.

As far as society is concerned, there are some potential benefits. More people going for shopping means influx of money into the markets and promotion of businesses. Money changes hands, and therefore, boost the economy. Furthermore, to meet up with the rising demands of public more outfits and shops are opened, thus rendering more marketing and sales related jobs.

To conclude, there is no refutation that shopping has become the preference of many individuals to devote their leisure time due to the facts, such as, unavailability of venues for amusement purposes, conversely, shopping malls cater entertainment for all ages; therefore, lure more souls. Although, this development emboldens the business and trade in markets, but is occurring at the expense of financial freight on the income of many people.