Month: October 2012

Did the privilege of convenience turn into an invasion of privacy?

In John Lee’s blog on “Is Google As Great As People Gather,” people are forced to really think about what they are giving away as they perform a simple “google search” online. Google’s monopoly over the internet search engines has gathered so much power that no matter what surfer people are using, they still refer to the verb google for nearly every moment when a curiosity needs to be fulfilled. The new feature on google allows users to store and centralize their personal information. The question now arise, is this too much? Has Google finally crossed the line?

Privacy issues like this have been popular topics in our society today, with facebook topping it off. What Google and facebook have in common is that they gather information across their services and inform companies what people search for. With that being said, however, many users are also using these systems under the knowledge that their privacy could be invaded. Therefore, the new privacy setting on Google really could not have been developed without the invisible support of the users.

The new search feature on Google has been said to cross the line a little bit, but can the society today really live without this kind of convenience? Did not this kind of specialized feature get developed out of people’s need for constant convenience? Where to draw the line is yet to be determined.

While I stumbled upon Anna Zhao’s blog on “Stuck In A Consumerist Society,”  it suddenly struck me on what our society has become, on what we have become. The power of media, of marketing, has led the behaviors of consumers to a whole new level. It is not simply about what we need and what we want anymore, but rather about the revolution of our wants.

The example of the iphone used in Anna’s post is perfect, as a newer version of it comes out more than every year. What are consumers, including me, chasing after? A slightly faster speed? A bigger screen? Or is it the square edges instead of the round? The truth is, even though these features are nice to have, consumers really are going after the “name” that symbolizes the latest version, that symbolizes innovation. 

Businesses know very well this weakness of consumers, utilizing it as far as from fashion to technology. However what really drives this phenomenon going are the consumers. Consumers are helplessly stuck in this cycle of consumerism of buying and purchasing, with most of them being reluctant to get out of it. So what can we do to help put a halt to this consumerist society? Pehaps that is solely up to the consumers themselves.