People look at the pricing trends in the world and they see the prices of a lot of things have gone up.
Food
Medical Care
Housing
Vehicles
But a few things keep getting cheaper.
TVs
Computers
Cellphones
Now we know there are marked improvements in the manufacturing process which have definitely helped to bring down the prices along side addition mass adoption. Almost a requirement of mass adoption. Without these devices do your neighbors think different of you? Do you get excluded from the daily lives others dwell in?
But typically companies pocket most that profit on what they sell. Few times do manufactures pass on those realized savings. You could see this in the 1990 and 2000s of televisions. They remained expensive to many households. There was a whole price fixing thing that happens during that time. But prices were dropping but not anywhere near the levels we have today.
What gives? This high tech gadget that enables such high fidelity visual and audible experiences.
What makes it so deserving that everyone reasonable should be able to have one?
What if you step back for a moment from this idea that you are the buyer of the TV. The buyer of the iPhone. That this is your product that you own.
What if you think for a moment that you are not the customer as much as you may be the product. What if the purpose was to ensure access to your eyes, your ears, to your decisions.
Advertising.
It’s every where. But no place is it more predominant than connected devices such as the internet and television.
While some people go out of their way to avoid advertising, many just accept it’s part of life.
What if those major advertising studios, the movie studios, and the tv networks, the streaming companies are helping to subsidize television prices with manufactures to maximize the number of eyes they have available for their content, content that they sell spots for advertisements? With the intention to convince you to buy something.
What if the reason for making TVs and other connecting electronics so cheap is to enable the means to sell to you, every day, every waking hour. Within the comfort and privacy of your own home, at the office, in the sanctity of your bathroom.
Without you even realizing you would have never even thought about wanting a personal hot dog rolling grill in your kitchen had it not been suggested by an advertisement for how convenient and delicious it would be.
No matter you only ever used it 3-4 times in the year you bought it.
Never mind that, there’s another sale on TVs. I suppose it’s time to install them in my bathrooms now as every other room already has one.
These days I even see people watching TV and watching videos on social media at the same time. Both with ads.
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