Hype!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Has The Internet Gone Too Far?
I remember back in the 1980s (history for many of you reading
this), I had a friend working at the University of California
who had access to the Internet through the University system. It
was new, it was esoteric, it was for academicians, nerds, and
professional scientists.
Another friend, a salesman, pondered the commercial
possibilities. "Sales and marketing," my University friend
intoned, is "strongly frowned upon" by the Internet community.
Fast forward 20 to 25 years. What happened?
A system designed for researchers and academic communities to
discuss ideas has become one of the primary means of
communication for individuals throughout the world. It is the
great leveler: a Bosnian peasant, a Kenyan tribesman, an urban
ghetto adolescent, with access to a computer, is on a level with
global corporations and top decision makers. The world wide web
has created an unprecedented opportunity for verbal intercourse,
far beyond anything that has historically been available, for
anyone, even the rich and powerful. Blogs, personalized and
updated, perhaps several times a day, allow the most humble
their day in the sun.
What have we done with this new weapon with its potential to
unite the world and give every individual, no matter how
powerless and lonely, the chance to interact on the world stage?
We have commercialized it beyond any reasonable "make a sale"
level. We have created the ultimate international snake oil
salesperson. We have taken the "great communicator" and
transformed him into the "great con."
How did this happen? The desire to sell something - anything -
morphed into simply the desire to sell. Join any traffic site,
SEO group, PR Newsletter, or Internet Forum and you will be
immediately inundated with messages about selling.
Is there anything wrong with trying to sell a product? Of course
not, that is what makes the wheels of commerce go round. I have
no objection whatsoever to someone trying to sell me something -
that is their job and I respect their right to pursue it.
What totally sickens me (how about you?) are the people who are
not trying to sell me a product but are selling "how to sell."
I belong to several traffic exchange sites (I willingly admit
that I'm trying to sell a book) that require me to spend 20 to
30 seconds on other exchange program websites. I have no problem
with, and actually admire, someone trying to sell me something,
whether I want it or not. I even find myself sighing with relief
when I reach a site selling an actual product, whether a bottle
of pills, a newsletter, a gift, or an e-book.
What frustrates, exasperates, and eventually disgusts me, is the
webmaster out there who is not really selling anything tangible,
merely selling the reader on selling. How many ads have you
encountered that want you to sign-up for "The List," "Marketing
Secrets Revealed," or "Make $___ within 48 hours without lifting
a finger." How many times have you clicked on a link only to
find the same theme: how you can make money off everyone else?
If everyone on the net is there to make money, from whom are
they making their living? Is there really a vast population of
the unwashed, sitting quietly reading their emails and surfing
unending Websites, who exist just to buy stuff from these
overzealous marketing gurus? Or does the money simply rotate as
marketers buy from marketers toward the supreme goal of becoming
a better marketer?
We live in the information age where knowledge is power, the
details of both history and today's world are only a mouse click
away, and the ease of access to almost everything approaches the
speed of interplanetary travel. What productive use have we
identified for all of this data?
Future archeologists, digging through our abandoned middens and
long forgotten dumpsites, may finally stumble across our great
weakness: that making money is the be-all and end-all of life.
Shaking their heads in regret, they will publish their findings,
reporting on a great civilization that eventually collapsed
under the weight of its own hype.