I came across this new term on social media the other day, and it literally made me LOL (Laugh Out Loud). It was the first time I’ve ever heard of the term - ‘Hover Finger’ - but it totally described a ‘disorder’ that I have. A recent encounter while shopping for my kids’ clothes online amused me so much that I thought it was blog worthy to record it down.
Many people love online shopping – and I am no exception. Browsing through hundreds of cool things online and adding them to my cart is fun. Sometimes, after browsing through a particular website, I could have unknowingly added more than 20 items into my cart. I’ll be absolutely frank about this – I hesitate, and hesitate and hesitate… before I click on that button called, ‘Payment’. Simply because choosing and adding items into the cart is easy, but when it’s time to part with my money my security fears arise. Let’s be honest – I’m quite sure you face the same problem as me, no?! Yes, that’s what Hover Finger means – Your finger hovers just when you are about to press the button to make payment for your online purchases. What an ingenious and totally apt description! Haha!
For those struggling to understand what I mean, this is what I mean:
Hover Finger is a disorder that causes your index finger to struggle in making the final click on a purchase. 
Granted, there are different reasons why many of us have this common disorder called the Hover Finger. But most worry about whether that particular online store is trustworthy and if their money would get ‘eaten up’ and goods undelivered, etc etc. I started online shopping much later than many of my peers, and I admit I am skeptical, especially with online shops that I’m not familiar with. You can hardly blame me right? After all, the transactions take place in the virtual space and money goes out of my wallet as easily as a click of a button. Isn’t it only natural for me to feel some insecurity? I admit though – I am rather conservative when it comes to online shopping.
So, back to my amusing encounter the other day. I was searching the Internet for some images I needed for work and I stumbled upon an advertisement featuring some really cute kids’ clothes. I couldn’t help but clicked on it, only to be brought to a website called http://www.shopmadeinchina.com/. I had never seen this website before and it offered a lot of kids clothes at incredibly cheap prices (so cheap that I rubbed my eyes twice just to make sure). There were so many different styles, patterns and colors to choose from, all over the place – to an online shopper, that website was a paradise, albeit a pretty unfamiliar one.
As always, I got pretty excited and started clicking on the pretty items one by one into my cart. I have two girls, you see. And both my girls LOVE clothes, accessories, shoes and bags. I dare not even show them the website – they would have probably asked me to buy everything. The online shop really had way too many things that I would love to buy for my girls (if I had all the money in the world).
After close to 20 minutes of browsing, I finally got to the summary page where I sifted through the items I’ve added into the cart. What survived in the cart after my rigorous thinking and rethinking was a pair of pink shoes for Jayne because her birthday was approaching during that time. I placed my order.
I was brought to the last page just before payment was to be made. That could have very well marked the end of my online shopping experience for that day, if not for the disorder I talked about right at the beginning – HOVER FINGER. And it wouldn’t be an amusing encounter if not for that.
I am both ashamed and amused to say that even though I have always thought of myself as a cool and confident mum who is scared of absolutely nothing in this world, I was actually petrified to click on the button that says ‘Pay My Order’. Like I said, I’ve always been a conservative online shopper, and for me to actually purchase something from a website that I’m visiting for the first time…… it takes a lot of courage. Questions raced through my mind during that few seconds:
“Is this website authentic?”
”Is it safe for me to key in my credit card number on this website? Could someone steal the number and make purchases using that?”
I know I sounded a little paranoid, and the purchase amount was not even that big, but when it comes to online shopping, I’ve always been very cautious. I am always very hesitant about making payments online (please tell me I’m not alone!). To end off the story, I didn’t complete the transaction in the end – yes, I chickened out from clicking on ‘Pay My Order’!!!
Do you have Hover Finger too?? =P
P/S: Till today, I still owe Jayne her birthday present.
P/P/S: I hope Jayne will not notice this particular blog entry when she’s old enough to read my blog. My image will be totally ruined!