Ah, online shopping. It’s extremely convenient when you need something specific in a pinch, and you don’t have time to go searching through ten different shops. But there are certainly risks involved as well. What if your typical size doesn’t actually fit? What if the object arrives broken after a long journey in transit? And what if what you receive looks absolutely nothing like what you saw in the photo?

When it comes to the pros and cons of ordering items online, The Balance says there are many. But let’s start off on a positive note: it’s convenient, there’s a much larger selection than in stores, and it’s easy to access product information. You can online shop at night if you can’t make it to the store before they close, and you can read dozens of reviews to ensure you make an informed purchase.        

On the flip side, however, there are definitely some aspects of online shopping that aren’t great. First things first, it can be more expensive. You will likely have to pay for shipping, and you might even get hit with an internet sales tax, depending on where you live. 

And as we’ve seen from this list, there’s an increased risk of fraud when buying online. You can’t see exactly what you’re getting until it arrives, and it’s a lot easier for scammers to get your credit card information through a fake website than through a suspicious link in an email. Consumers have to be vigilant when determining whether or not a website is safe.

To find out more about the realities of online shopping and whether or not we should be doing it at all, we got in touch with Courtney Carver, creator of Be More With Less and author of Gentle. Courtney was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and share her thoughts on shopping online.

"It is a nice convenience and an accessibility factor you may not see shopping otherwise. For some though, it can be a little too convenient," she noted. "There's no friction, no pause required before buying something you may not even really want or need."

"Because online shopping can be so immediate, some people add to cart when they are trying to self-soothe. You might try to shop away pain, like the pain of boredom, frustration or insomnia. Usually, none of these ailments are relieved in the end, and now you own one more thing and may have a little more debt, which leads to more pain."

There are also some risks that come along with shopping online. "Online shopping is pretty reliable, but you may not get the right size or the thing you order may not show up as it appeared online," Courtney warns. "Often online shopping comes with returns, so you end up spending the time and energy you had planned to save by shopping online in the first place."

So if you're looking to cut down on your online purchases, Courtney recommends a 30-90 day shopping ban. "Make a list of the essentials you'll need to shop for during that time, and take everything else off the table. Unsubscribe from shopping sites, remove your cards from Amazon and other places that make it way too easy to shop. It gives you a little space to feel your feelings, mind your budget and to prioritize more meaningful self-care," she explained. "If shopping for clothing and wardrobe-related items is your problem area, try the Project 333 challenge."

Despite the fact that over a third of the world’s population shops online, the reality is that we should probably be doing it much, much less. In fact, according to TIME, these “harmless” little orders might be negatively impacting your mental health. Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford Medicine, says that both shopping and spending time on the internet are addictive. So doing both at the same time can be a dangerous combination.