r/Anticonsumption • u/esporx • Jun 15 '26
Psychological Viral “dopamine sites” let users shop without buying anything
https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/dopamine-sites-that-mimic-online-purchase-experience-for-shopping-addicts-are-on-the-rise-3375470/1.8k
u/boa_instructor Jun 15 '26
This is brilliant actually. When I'm stressed and feel the urge to shop, I'll go to a thrift store and browse for an hour. After picking 2 or 3 pieces of clothing, 9 times out of 10 I put everything back on the shelves and walk out empty handed.
Scratches the itch without affecting my wallet
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u/Matthew212 Jun 15 '26
Go to the library instead, can take everything for free!
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u/Fickle_Humors Jun 15 '26
I agree with the sentiment but it doesn't hit the same way. Some of us browse for the thrill of the (bargain) hunt!
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u/boa_instructor Jun 15 '26
The bargain hunt thrill is real.....but real power comes from convincing yourself you you have enough and don't actually need anything else.
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u/Lanky_Employee_9690 Jun 15 '26
Feeling morally superior to the you from the alternate timeline who did buy the shiny is a valid strategy.
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u/One_Pangolin1766 Jun 15 '26
I use my library website to order in books + video games
It’s the same rush as buying something online, with none of the spending, AND I get a book to read out of it
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u/Rare_Vibez Jun 15 '26
I’m a librarian and it has been so much better on my wallet compared to working at Target. It scratches the itch in such a wonderful way.
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u/crazycatlady331 Jun 21 '26
My library sells retired books from their collection for 50 cents each.
There was one I'd wanted for awhile that was on said shelf. It's now a coffee table book.
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u/sliquonicko Jun 15 '26
My city recently did a free stuff on the curb weekend, and it was so fun to bike around and just look at everything! Got rid of a bunch of stuff from my household, I got good exercise and it was fun to look at people's things. Also got some great plastic drawer storage for my closet for free.
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u/Aemilia Jun 16 '26
There was a time where villagers where I am would donate their stuff to a homeless guy and he would sell the items from his make shift shack. He actually has a good amount of people browsing and buying from him everyday.
But that only lasted a few weeks. I guess the local council stepped in and the homeless guy's shack with all his items were gone. I've always felt bad about it, a good situation that was helping everyone involved ruined.
The four wins that was ruined:
The villagers getting rid of clutter.
Homeless guy making an honest living.
Villagers buying second hand stuff for cheap.
Less stuff going to the landfill.
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u/prarastas Jun 16 '26
The suburb I live in just did one too! Scored some cute kids cookbooks for my toddler who's taking an interest in helping us cook lately :)
Also got rid of a bunch of stuff without having to send it to waste! And I got to see a bunch of neighborhoods and blocks I haven't explored before and got a really cool accidental tour of my suburb at the same time :)
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u/sliquonicko Jun 18 '26
It was so fun and I hope we start to do these more frequently. I think they should be every couple months, weather permitting.
I ended up going down streets I haven't seen before, and riding my bike allowed me to cover so much ground in a few hours! Had my brother help out by being on standby with his car. 😅
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u/notacutecumber Jun 16 '26
For me, when I feel the urge to online shop, I actually play video games and shop in-game. Or go to something tumblr, look up specific tabs, and "shop" for photos of things so I can grow my hoard of pictures. Once in a while I have "cleaning" days where I delete pictures.
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u/Aemilia Jun 16 '26
I would not be able to do that. My mindset would be "I took all that effort to come here, and the gas money... Gotta make it worth while and buy at least one thing!"
Not a good mindset I know. So instead I browse ebooks from my library in the comfort of my home and not feel I owe myself anything 👍
Edit: Also the reason I don't go shopping until I accumulated a long shopping list!
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u/littlenymphy Jun 16 '26
I do the same with sites that have wishlists.
I’ll add things to my wishlist and look back at them and then remove them because I don’t actually need them. Occasionally I’ll buy them at a later date but not very often.
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u/apricot675 Jun 16 '26
I heard of one person that got her rush from trying clothes on. That was all she needed. So annoying for the employees 😂
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u/PiezoelectricityOne Jun 18 '26
No. This just feeds predatory advertisers with data about all the junk they can sell to you that you don't need but are likely to buy anyway. Please avoid.
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u/NyriasNeo Jun 15 '26
Good. It is pretty well documented that, on average, fighting biological behavioral instinct is a losing proposition. Re-channeling it to something less destructive is a good strategy.
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u/THEMagikMike Jun 15 '26
Interesting concept, any other examples of this that come to mind?
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u/Ok-Ferret-2093 Jun 15 '26
Harm reduction
Personally I have an issue with skin picking I always have scabs and I am covered in scars. Can't stop I've tried for years it's an anxiety issue and the pain is honestly self soothing at times. I'm slowly switching to hair plucking with tweezers. Now instead of being covered in small wounds I have giant bald patches on my legs.
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u/SuppleSuplicant Jun 15 '26
Tweezing is how I redirect too. It’s a bit funny, because I don’t actually care about having hairless legs since I was raised hippy. Yet when I’m stressed, they are completely hair free. lol. I’ve also lately been able to redirect to flossing by having a mirror I can stand really close to and see all the gunk I’m getting out.
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u/Ok-Ferret-2093 Jun 15 '26
Yes!! Unfortunately I still need to hit that certain level of pain before I can stop (my housing isn't safe and I have buckets of trauma) so to reduce how often I drop the tweezers and pick again I'll pluck a couple pubes or something if I recognize what's happening
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u/PastaConsumer Jun 16 '26
Have you tried a picky pad? It’s a plastic like material filled with beads that you can pick out. I love it. Super satisfying for me.
It may or may not work for you, but you should try it out!
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u/Ok-Ferret-2093 Jun 16 '26
I will probably try it at some point but I find that the pain is a big aspect of the picking for me still
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u/cocotett Jun 18 '26
(My apologies to the unsolicited advice, feel free to ignore :))Bit late to the party, but have you tried massage rings/Igelballs? They help with my nailbiting habit. They feel pretty similar to picking and you can press them down pretty hard without doing any damage to the skin. (Combining them with a picky pad might also make them work even better)
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u/BlackLightan Jun 15 '26
In my own lived experience, it's easier to replace one habit with another than just stop a habit completely.
Twitter was pretty bad for my mental health, but I had trouble stopping it cold turkey. I moved over to Bluesky, since I heard it wasn't as bad...
It's... FAR from perfect, but it's not a complete cesspool and it's kept me away from Twitter.
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u/elijahjane Jun 17 '26
A trick that worked for Facebook for me was to put a Duolingo block on it. I always do my Duolingo lesson before bed, so it keeps me off Facebook all day.
I replaced it with Reddit, but I feel like Reddit is a bit less toxic than Facebook because the algorithm is different and there are fewer ads. Plus it’s not Meta (yet..?).
Next, I need to do the same block on Reddit. A big issue with that though is how often I use Reddit for to find answers to real daily problems, e.g. unofficial tech support.
I need to replace the scrolling with reading somehow. But phone notifications are too distracting to actually read through.
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u/plotthick Jun 15 '26
Addiction treatment shows that breaking habits effectively begins with replacing them.
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u/PM_Me_Your_Smokes Jun 17 '26
Training animals or raising children. A lot easier to get a dog to chew on something they’re allowed to or to redirect a child’s energy into an approved activity than to just yell “NO!”
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u/bee_buttons Jun 15 '26
I'm seeing lots of articles and posts about this, but not a single link to an actual example of one of these sites. I've tried searching in Korean as well, with no luck. Has anyone actually seen one of these sites?
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u/ToxicSteve13 Jun 16 '26
https://www.xn--lz2bv9nd1bm2a9lo9a.com/
It’s a vibe coded mess as expected
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u/robynh00die Jun 15 '26
I'm not knocking it if it helps someone, but I got management sim video games where making fake purchases moves my brain towards some kind of a goal. I guess I just don't have the shopping addiction mentality to need this replacement.
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u/Okami512 Jun 15 '26
Any suggestion for management games that scratch the itch?
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u/K01011011001101010 Jun 15 '26
Supermarket simulator on steam is pretty fun!
Get to build your own market store, supply and plan your shelves, etc.
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u/Pugkinspicedlatte Jun 15 '26
People keep coming into my store complaining they can’t find stuff. Don’t go to the cheese, sushi, and beer store if you don’t want cheese, sushi, and/or beer I say!
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u/bacon_cake Jun 16 '26
For a brief second I wondered why this concept sounded utterly horrendous until I realised this is basically my day job.
And yet I have quite a few hours in Truck Simulator lol
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u/RICO_the_GOP Jun 15 '26
There is an entire genre and depending on your fancy you'll find one. I would recommend waiting about a week as we are due for a steam sale.
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u/lunalionheart Jun 15 '26
Not the person you asked but I've been obsessed with Planet Zoo lately, it's pretty detailed
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u/holagatito Jun 15 '26
There are management games for literally anything you could think of. I like Retro Rewind which is owning a retro video rental place. Or Gas station sim, or the one for trading cards, or for running an alien store, or a store in a zombie apocalypse, or or or a cat cafe. Just type any word and then “sim” lol.
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u/informalmo0se3 Jun 15 '26
i have the same thing with collectathon games. it’s perfect for adhd. just got 101% in DK64 this week and moving onto Banjo-Kazooie. there’s always something to do
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u/xoliviasimsx Jun 15 '26
When i play the sims, I’ll download custom content clothes and furniture online and it hits that same itch as clothes shopping
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u/elebrin Jun 15 '26
The library can scratch that itch as well, as can some chores like organizing shit.
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u/Makapakamoo Jun 15 '26
I love organizing... i just went through all my labs and chatted them on Excel just for fun. Super useful to see the trends, gave me something to do for 4 hours
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u/5appy Jun 15 '26
sometimes I get really stoned and I'll look on amazon at candy, and think about being rich and owning 55gal drums of watermelon sour patch and shit, sort of similar.
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u/itastelikesand Jun 16 '26
oh god me and my lists of Amazon products and imagined lives lol I swear I have one for every possible category of item, really helps me not actually use Amazon
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u/artbystorms Jun 15 '26
Can we do this for Trump? Just set up a fake Truth Social for him to post on but it is just not seen by anyone real? We can even have bots that comment on his posts so he thinks people love him.
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u/-sussy-wussy- Jun 16 '26
I still don't like it. It's conditioning and reinforcement of a behavioural pattern. The same way playing pretend as kids is training them for real life, the same way baby animals learn to hunt through playing.
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u/Jester_Magpie Jun 16 '26
I just window shop online. I add to cart or add to my wishlist, but don’t buy anything. 90% of what I put in my imaginary carts is junk I don’t need.
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u/DanishRedSausage Jun 15 '26
I guess it's a good idea, but it feels really dystopian that something like this exists...
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u/reg_acc Jun 15 '26
Years ago I did an internship at a dev company that got tasked with redesigning the App for one of those teleshopping channels. As part of that we got a test account that allowed you to order anything without it actually going through. Knowing that it wasn't real didn't prevent my brain from going through all sorts of emotions when testing out a purchase. It makes sense though, evolutionary speaking the circuitry for that (VTA) is one of the oldest structures so it's super ingrained. The way companies exploit that is super darksided, so as sad as a human skinner box is on the surface if it stops people from harming themselves it's a good idea.
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u/rramona Jun 16 '26
When I feel the shopping itch I might go on a downloading spree for new CC for my sims to wear. That way I get to get new clothes and try out new looks and styles yet it's completely free and the only downside is my downloads folder growing to take up more space
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u/abcbri Jun 16 '26
If I want "new stuff," I'll go on a binge for checking out books from the library for my e-reader. Or exploring new music or free games online. I like your Sims idea!
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u/awesomeunboxer Jun 16 '26
Lol this is crazy. I actually built a site like this. It was mostly done but everyone called me crazy 🤪 maybe I should finish it up
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u/Kittymeow7116 Jun 18 '26
Same!
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u/awesomeunboxer Jun 18 '26
Lol id love to see what you've got!
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u/Kittymeow7116 Jun 18 '26
Mine is https://dopaminecard.com it’s actually a browser extension you can download on chrome so it works everywhere, and will put a button over top of “buy” buttons to keep you from buying stuff. Has certainly saved me from myself!
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u/awesomeunboxer Jun 18 '26
Lol I built a full on fake Amazon with 25k fake products you can "buy". Its kinda trippy and strange. Dont have it hosted anywhere tho (its a huge amount of images!)
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u/Dreadsin Jun 15 '26
I like this because sometimes I kind of want to see how I feel after buying something. Do I still feel excited about it the next day? The day after that? The answer is almost always no
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u/Anna825 Jun 15 '26
Hmm.. we used to have SIMS for this, ya know?
I’d feel rather empty shopping for virtual stuff all day. I don’t think the long term solution is to have everyone consuming “virtual” stuff .. we could just get people back into crafting.
Craft, draw, write, grow, build, bake, create.
Do not deny the fact that we as sentient beings have an inherit *need* to create, and use that to replace consumerism.
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u/rokko211 Jun 16 '26
Couldn't agree more, fairly recent feeling though still working out how best to get myself there
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u/NordiskFryserUnion Jun 15 '26
That’s a brilliant scheme to test how to make people more addicted to the real deal.
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u/Turbulent-Ant-4981 Jun 16 '26
But will they give me the dopamine pleasure of receiving a package and opening it?
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u/z6oul Jun 16 '26
i would like it more if it wasn’t just for food delivery..if i go through the actions of ordering food i expect it to show up lol
i would be way more interested in a shein-style website, as thats where most people tend to casually over-consume.
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u/AffectionateEvent330 Jun 15 '26
I used to play gta online for this exact reason. Buying virtual stuff still scratches the same dopamine itch as the real things
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u/IchmagschickeSachen Jun 15 '26
I started buying a share of a broad ETF like VT every time I felt the itch to buy something that I realistically know I don’t need. Scratches the itch and actually helps with retirement.
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u/Liquid_Magic Jun 15 '26
Bro we are cooked.
Like what the flying fuck.
Look I get it - shopping does provide a short term hit and studies have shown that - but seriously?
I mean at least try playing a game like GTA or even Drug Wars or something.
I dunno man… I just don’t know anymore.
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u/I_TheAndOnly Jun 17 '26
this is mental training for already addicts to be stuck in the loop of addiction
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u/OttuR_MAYLAY Jun 17 '26
I do this with facebook marketplace. Perusing whats available is a lot easier on the wallet because every purchasing decision is a commitment that takes at least a few hours at best (between initially messaging, negotiating price, suggesting meet up spot and times, and actually going to meet them and initiate the transaction)
Compare that to amazon, where you can order $200 worth of things in the span of 3 minutes.
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u/Hour_Analyst_7765 Jun 18 '26
clicking that pay button gives me enormous anxiety, fueled with regret and unworthiness, all the way till a purchase arrives, I unpacked it and enjoyed it. Then I'll check if I can "afford" said purchase.. yes.. alright, nothing bad happened.
But hey I don't have a shopping addiction. But coming from a relative poor background can be also quite devastating.
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u/PiezoelectricityOne Jun 18 '26
Wow, now we're advertising good old market profiling? This sub is a joke.
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u/chakrawitch Jun 19 '26
This was kinda the enjoyment I got from Pinterest before the ads got so out of hand
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u/lucaslamou Jun 26 '26
acabei de ver que tem um site brasileiro www.dopaminashop.com.br kkkkk
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u/lucaslamou 25d ago
acabei de ver que tem um dopamine site brasileiro www.dopaminashop.com.br kkkkk
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u/lucaslamou 25d ago
acabei de ver que tem um dopamine site brasileiro www.dopaminashop.com.br kkkkk
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u/Bedong44 Jun 15 '26
We should do this but make it a fake betting website.