Although I usually argue that technology is ruining certain aspects of life—such as negatively affecting how we communicate and interact with one another—it is time to give credit where credit is due. When it comes to Black Friday or Cyber Monday shopping, the less I interact with people the better.

For years, Black Friday has been the frenzy during the winter shopping season. However, with the rapid technological advances our society has undergone in the past few decades, it is only logical that an event such as Cyber Monday would be added to the tradition of early holiday shopping—minus the multitude of people trampling each other and fighting over merchandise.

“I prefer Cyber Monday 100%. I love the idea of not dealing with the craziness. It’s just easier,” Eliseo Estrada, a kinesiology major, said.

Avoiding stressful and irritating situations like a Black Friday sale is one of the benefits of doing everything online. Steering clear of the madness induced in shoppers when there is a TV set on sale for 40% off is not the only reason to prefer Cyber Monday. There are plenty of other benefits to this form of shopping.

People’s safety, for instance, is not in jeopardy when shopping online. According to the website BlackFridayDeathCount.com—a website dedicated to keep a record of incidents where people have died or been injured during Black Friday shopping—there have been 12 deaths and 117 injuries in total from 2006 to 2018.

“Shopping online is just more convenient. I work all day and usually work on Black Fridays anyway,” senior and history major Fidel Rodriguez said.

Most people are already too busy with their jobs, and the apparent chaos of Black Friday sales only discourages people even further from taking off a day from work. Cyber Monday, thus, will be more fitting to people’s work schedules, since anything and everything can be ordered during a lunch break or from the comfort of a couch.

The bigger inventory online is another convenience. A store has limited space and can only carry so much inventory. This can make what you’re looking for difficult to find, so it might be necessary to go to more than one store. Online shopping delivers more options, which increases the likelihood of purchasing the item that we had been searching for without the need to look in multiple places.

Some might argue that the preference for Cyber Monday has to do with our generation’s own biases. In fact, Rodriguez went on to say that he may be biased, since “it comes down to age” that we like Cyber Monday. We might just be a generation that is more comfortable using technology, so we gear towards online shopping as opposed to older individuals, who may be more comfortable doing their shopping in person.

Even though I agree that the preference for online shopping may be a reflection of how we have become too reliant on technology, it also makes sense to take advantage of it if it can help avoid unnecessary stress and save us time.

“I like a little bit of both, since I like to compare prices,” Nicole Lopez, a junior psychology major said.

People have different opinions on where the better deals are, but from the people I have talked to, it seems that the rule of thumb is this: Black Friday is the better day to purchase bigger and everyday items that only a store would carry, while Cyber Monday is better when it comes to smaller gifts like phones.

Although I believe that the most convenient form of shopping is during Cyber Monday, if you have enough time and patience to go Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, you can get the best of both forms of shopping. Ultimately, it comes down to preference, time, and comfort.