Amazon has infected the minds of lots of people to a point where they'll spend half an hour sifting through garbage listings in their horrible web site and then wait a full day to receive the product, instead of going to the corner store and buy what they know they want.

It's incredible, right? But what causes it? And is it connected to all the other facets of the mass dumbing-down of the entire population?

I'll humor this patronizing reply chain to add that online shopping, despite its flaws and lack of boolean search, has a better selection and long tail variety than local brick and mortar establishments that all hassle you with warranty protection plan upsells and customer loyalty points anyway. Even the rare shop that can beat Amazon on price and selection, like Microcenter, still tries to guilt trip you with extended warranties and $80 "ram installation" service.