"Market Researching Tyrants"

"Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort."

This quote is from Marshall McLuhan who was a Canadian professor and philosopher. He predicted the World Wide Web way before it was invented. He was very interested in the idea of mass media. Global village is a word he created when he described the world with media, on how the world is connected with electric devices and instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time.

However, this instantaneous information movement isn't always a good thing. In the quote of Marshall McLuhan, he calls market researchers "tyrants" that rules the world of media. And it is true. If you look at your social media account posts these days, it is easy to spot an advertisement or survey. It means that this mass media system we have developed over the years is not exactly us regular people only. This system can be used by pretty much everyone including corporations that wants to advertise their product so and so.

The thing in issue right now is the vague definition of "market research." Since corporations use this as a business strategy to get information from their customers, they use social media. They use to use landlines to do surveys but younger population these days do not own a home phone. Which encouraged corporations to use social media to stay relevant. However the thing with social media is that it is more personal than just old landline phones. People upload their daily lives including where they went for their trip, what they ate for lunch and dinner, which people they have met - and sometimes very personal images of what they did with them. And you get the idea on how personal this gets. Corporations takes advantage from this and take personal information and advertise specific things certain individual would purchase. Sometimes it can be brainwashing since it pops up so much in their feed.

Now, you might think differently on what to upload on your social media account. What do you think? Which one is wrong? The fact that you are uploading personal information online, or the people are taking a pick at those information for their benefits? Are you using the internet or is internet using you?