1. Name some products or services that
your social group uses a lot. State whether you agree or disagree with
the notion that these products help to form group bonds. Support your
argument with examples from your listing of products that your group
2. Critics of targeted marketing strategies argue that this practice
is discriminatory and unfair, especially if such a strategy encourages
a group of people to buy a product that may be injurious to them or
that they cannot afford. For example, community leaders in largely
minority neighborhoods have staged protests against billboards
promoting beer or cigarettes in these areas. However, the Association
of National Advertisers argues that banning targeted marketing
constitutes censorship and thus is a violation of the First Amendment.
What are your views regarding this issue? Provide other examples
through some quick internet research. 3. Will the Web bring people
closer together or drive each of us into our own private virtual
worlds? Wired Americans are spending less time with friends and
family, less time shopping in stores, and more time working at home
after hours. More than one-third of consumers who have access to the
Internet report that they are online at least 5 hours a week. Also, 60
percent of Internet users say they have reduced their television
viewing, and one-third say they spend less time reading newspapers
(those that still remain, as many fold as a result of a lack of
readership and advertising revenue). However, a study by the Pew
Internet and American Life Project reported that more than half of
users the group surveyed feel that email actually strengthens family
ties. Users reported far more offline social contact than
nonusers.asThese results argue that people spend more time than ever
with others. It’s just that they form strong relationships over the
Internet instead of in person. But the author of the first survey
disagrees. As he observes, “If I go home at 6:30 in the evening and
spend the whole night sending email and wake up the next morning, I
still haven’t talked to my wife or kids or friends. When you spend
your time on the Internet, you don’t hear a human voice and you never
get a hug.”` A follow-up study found that it works both ways:
extroverts tend to make even more friends on the Web, whereas
introverts feel even more cut off from the rest of the world. This has
been termed the “rich get richer” model of Internet use.2 What’s your
take on this issue? Is our wired world turning us into digital
hermits, or does it help us to expand our boundaries by interacting
with other people whom we might not otherwise meet? What are the good
and bad consequences of this profound change in how we interact with
other people?
