Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Suggestions

The United States provides a free arena for one to explore and make decisions based on individual preferences. Traditionally Americans are projected as ones with total control over what they choose to do and what they choose to view without guidance from an outside source. This arena of freedom of choice can be questioned with the advent of internet marketing. Internet marketing has provided a new way in which companies can direct people to make decisions. All over the internet, websites, search engines and company pages engineer their websites to personalize and relate to the individual person who is viewing the site. For example a search engine, such as Google, will base their searches on the personalized choices that the individual did before. So Google tailors is site to the individuals "preferences."https://www.google.com Another example of this would be the Netflix suggestion box.http://movies.netflix.com This is a box that shows movies that are related to the movies that a viewer watched in the past. These new devices are used to make the consumers life easier but it can be a way in which individuals decisions can be guided. Rather than having a standard internet experience viewers are now provided with guidance tools that influence their decisions on a subconscious level. The question that these internet marketing devises raise is: can this be a step towards losing some form of individuality?   

1 comment:

  1. Personalization of commonly visited sites such as Google and Netflix is an important, but I'd like to see you make a stronger connection to digital journalism specifically. You cover a lot of territory here, so it would probably also be helpful to organize your prose into paragraphs.

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