Online shopping is an integral part of adult life no matter what age group you fall into. But apparently there’s one digital spending habit that didn’t make it to Gen Z.
UK-based radio host Jennie Longdon recently went viral for sharing how—despite being able to do virtually everything from our phones—folks over the age of 30 can’t seem to part with using their laptops for “big purchases.”
“Takeaway , clothes, shoes within reason, yeah,” she says in a clip posted to her TikTok. “But…a plane ticket? That’s a laptop job!”
Longdon continues to feign disgust as she imagines big purchases being made from the phone, as these items obviously require the larger screen. It’s just something that a millennial brain cannot get behind. “We cannot make a big or significant purchase on the phone. You can’t browse properly.”
“Bigger screens for the big things please,” her video caption reads.
@jennielongdon Bigger screen for the big things please. #millennial #millennialsoftiktok #millenialmum #fyp #foryou ♬ original sound – Jennie Longdon
But there may be some sound reasoning behind this seemingly outdated logic. According to Fluid Commerce, the average desktop provides “over 3 times as much information” as a smartphone screen, allowing for more research. Laptops might not offer quite as much information as a desktop, but they certainly offer more than a phone, and it’s just good common sense to want as much information as possible before making an investment.
Either way, most millennials seem willing to die on this hill.
“Big purchases on the computer because I don’t trust mobile apps to show me everything I need to know,” one wrote in the comments.
“Big purchase requires the big internet,” added another.
A third said, “I will literally look at the information on my phone, then go get my laptop to go to the same site to book it.”
A few even shared horror stories of trying things the newfangled way and it backfiring immediately.
“I lived dangerously the other day and booked a hotel room on my phone and it tools ages buffering at the confirmation screen and I was fuming and knew I should’ve done it on my laptop,” one person lamented.
Another wrote, “I booked a mini break on my phone once and I accidentally refreshed the page with my thumb midway through booking.”
Still, there are some millennials who are on board with the phones-only approach.
“I booked flights, accommodation, and extracurriculars for four people on my phone recently,” one person wrote. “I was so proud.”
Another said, “I’m a millennial and I just booked my Vegas hotel and flights on the phone. It’s…..fine…..”
Lastly—kudos to this commenter, who truly got to the root of this issue by saying:
“We grew up in an age when mobile websites were terrible and we’ve never forgotten it.”
That really hits the nail on the head, doesn’t it? Some scars just never truly heal.