From an economic standpoint, most information is simply a vehicle for advertising. We see the advertising as a distraction. But so far as the media company’s bottom line goes, the advertising is the point. Without the advertising, the information wouldn’t exist. So the history of information, in the U.S. at least, is the history of platforms that could support advertising. — Ezra Kline, Wonkblog, WaPo
Maybe we need to look at all information being supported by attached persuasive messages, advertising or some other meme. It’s always been this way, even way back when political parties supported newspapers as a way of getting their information out. In some ways that was more honest.
We are heading down a path of no return with information. It used to be that we were considered readers, then listeners, then viewers, then consumers. We more or less willingly accepted the ads surrounding our information as a way to get that information for “free.” In reality, it more or less was free.
But now we’re the ones being “consumed,” with our online tracks being followed by marketing scouts who record our every move for companies interested in our attention. We are tracked on the web, our “customer loyalty” cards are really just ways to trade a few pennies for your marketing information, and customer “surveys” do the same thing, in hopes of winning a prize.
We are talking about a “Minority Report”-like face recognition world where one is bombarded with advertising messages aimed directly at one person. Already we are seeing articles about how to “beat” facial recognition software. It will be a brave new world.
I hope we don’t look back at the good ol’ days when our information was free and so were we.
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