Last November I wrote about the four horsemen of the Internet: education, community, employment, and democracy. The four great promises. I asked if these promises had been fulfilled. Perhaps they have. I have a sneaking suspicion there's more going on.
I like Google. Over time I've noticed a change. When I used to search, I would sometimes get some oddball personal pages. Like Joe-Bob's Creedence Clearwater Revival lyrics and appreciation page, complete with Southern Flag and "CCR ROCKS!" icons. Today all I get are commercial sites. The kind that want to sell me something, or point me to something that sells me something. Used to be I'd see lots of personal pages. Most of the search results at the top of my list today aren't personal, they're commercial.
I think the Internet is taking the same turn that magazines took, and ultimately television and radio as well. That is, a move away from content and toward advertising. In Conscientious Objections, Neil Postman wrote about the relationship between advertising and the magazine industry.
...the nineteenth-century magazine made another important contribution to American culture, a contribution from which we have not yet recovered and perhaps never will: magazines created the advertising industry. Although magazine advertising was not unknown before the 1880s, the situation changed drastically when Congress passed the Postal Act of March 3, 1879, which gave magazines low-cost mailing privileges. As a consequence, they emerged as the best available conduits for national advertising (p. 60).
...[magazine publisher Frank Munsey] made two discoveries. First, a large circulation could be achieved by selling a magazine for much less than it cost to produce; and, second, huge profits could be made from the high volume of advertising that a large circulation would attract. (p. 61)
In other words, magazines quit selling content to subscribers and instead began selling subscribers to advertisers. The folks from Adbusters put together a 16-second YouTube video that describes this phenomenon. In summary: in any transaction, there's a (A) seller, (B) buyer, and (C) product. When this video says, "The product is you," I believe they mean that (A) the seller is the Television network, (B) the buyers are advertisers, and (C) the product purchased is human attention sold to advertisers.
I think the clever people at (A) Google have realized that the most lucrative (C) product is access to human attention, which can be sold to (B) advertisers. Does it change your perception of the Internet knowing that you are the product?
