Threadless is an online store that began seven years ago as a haven for artists to come together and submit their designs to be printed on t-shirts. The Threadless culture is very apparent and pervasive. Threadless t-shirt owners have silent acknowledgements of each other as part of the online community, and as dramatic as this might sound, even strangers can build bonds over a single t-shirt.
Wallace describes PIU (or Problematic Internet Use) as problematic behavior due to too much time spent online. Degree of PIU can be determined by an individual’s locus of control, operant conditioning, maintenance of virtual presence, and “newbie disease”. As Threadless is becoming an increasingly popular and successful company, its founders have developed much better ways to market their site, all while dragging in currently addicted members/fans and chaining them there. I know that for me, personally, I have wasted away hours on the site, rating new t-shirt designs, reading up on members’ blogs, scrolling through old designs and marking the ones I might want to buy when the next sale rolls around. Especially since their addition of “Thriftees” (one randomly selected t-shirt sold at sale price at any given moment), I’ve been more addicted to the site than ever. What makes the site particularly prone to PIU in a user is the constant change in atmosphere. Regular members want to be updated. Regular members want to be the first to know when an item goes on sale. Regular members want to have a say in what designs get printed. In order to be one of these members, a user needs to be constantly up to date in the goings-on of the website.
Though I agree with many of Wallace’s factors of PIU (especially the importance of the influence of the Internet end), I don’t feel that Caplan’s factors about psychosocial and Internet affordances apply. It is highly possible for one to get socially lost within an online environment, especially one conducive to a social atmosphere, Threadless isn’t as seriously threatening to one’s social health. That is, I believe that there are far worse places one could lose oneself socially. I think that the worst damage that a site like Threadless could do is make me procrastinate from academic work even more than I already do, which isn’t too bad I don’t think. :)
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2 comments:
Hi Kristie,
Really nice post about threadless.com and online shopping. After looking at a bunch of posts it seems that online shopping is a bigger PIU than I had originally thought. I’m personally a big fan of threadless.com and was surprised that someone would talk about it in their blog. After reading your blog, I now understand why. Threadless really does enhance PIU as they have allowed customers to become increasingly involved in the process of creating T-shirts, which undoubtedly contributes to increased time spent on the website, which can lead to excessive use. I noticed you didn’t really delve into the Online Cognition Scale by Davis, Flett & Besser, who talk about things such as diminished impulse control and distraction/procrastination. It seems like Threadless really provides an outlet for distraction and procrastination, and their “Thriftees” feature seems to feed right into impulses, and PIU could certainly lead to diminished impulse control. I also liked your take on Caplan, and agree that online shopping lacks a communal atmosphere that might make it hard to get caught up into. Really nice post!
Kristie,
First of all, the picture in your post is what convinced me to read your post, it’s pretty funny! I’d never visited Threadless.com before reading your post, but after reading your analysis I was intrigued by the idea of it. Sites like this seem to be what the so-called internet revolution was all about. It’s about giving the creative power back to the people, instead of having big companies design everything that we do. It reminds me of companies that will allow you to submit your own texts and they will print professional quality bound books in whatever quantities you want.
To me, the most important factor that you mentioned that keeps a regular member coming back is the fact that the site is different every time you sign on, so there’s always something new to look at. The fact that you don’t want to miss an important sale or new shirt becoming available is a strong motivator to keep coming back, and I’m sure the marketing people at threadless are well aware of that. Thanks for posting on such a cool website!
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