I’ll Tell You What You Want to Hear
The title sums up just about every business and sad to say, church in the era we are living in. Internet spying, or shall we call it, cyber demographics sets high standards. Companies collect information, then sell it to other companies so they can tell you what you want to hear. They do this to sell you want you don’t need. They do it everyday, and the sad part of it is, they are very successful at it. Business wants to keep one step ahead of, not just the general public, but the individual, and they are getting there.
On a mass scale, I’ve seen this happen in real estate. News releases shuffle the facts around just enough to make it look like listings are way down. That motivates agents to go out and get listings, more listings, and more listings. Listings drive the market. Control the listings and you control the market. Low and behold the truth finally came out in the 3rd quarter of 2017. Sales were off 52%. That means the market in 2017 had a total lack of buyers. It was a buyer’s market all along, but news releases told agents, it was a sellers market. We saw some of the largest increases in housing prices I’ve ever seen. Why? It was a lack of communication. Agents kept telling buyers, there was a lack of good homes for sale. The truth was, there was a greater lack of buyers to compete with, so take your time, make a sound, educated offer, and look for a great deal on a new home. There wasn’t a lot of competition out there for buyers to worry about, but statistics were presented to make people think, there was a lack of good, quality homes for sale.
As far as cyber demographics is concerned. People brainstorm ways to present just about every product to you in a personalized manner. It may be customized based on your internet browsing habits, an email you sent, and maybe even a phone call you made. Imagine that, people taking your phone conversations and turning them into a marketing tool aimed at you. Is it happening? If it isn’t, give it some time.
The fact of the matter is, businesses can spend less time designing and building quality products and stick more money into selling you whatever they have. They will develop a need in your life for whatever they have.
At the present time, we don’t know who to trust, who is spying on us, or how they will eventually use that information for, or against us. Cyber blackmail is not a new thing, and people will figure out how to acclimate your Internet browsing, emails, phone calls, and who knows what to — well blackmail people. Change a line or two, and the scammers have what they want, someone on the hook. What is next? We can only imagine. We do know, the government isn’t about to do anything about it. We are in our own in this world. Until we elect honest people who can run for reelection on what they’ve done, not on telling us what we want to hear a few days before the election. Come to think of it, telling people what they want to hear has been in politics long before the Internet was invented.