Instead of deciding what we want and when, advertising companies, their corporate clients, and big computer systems will be figuring it out for us … Subject to endless pitches, we will be identified by our consumer habits, immediately conscious of being encouraged to consume by people who seem to know us better than our friends.
Predictor: Hall, Justin Allyn
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 online essay, Justin Hall makes the following statement:”[If we allow it to happen,] instead of deciding what we want and when, advertising companies, their corporate clients, and big computer systems will be figuring it out for us. Every morning we will have to wade through piles of product endorsements. We can’t just kill filter them all, because some of them might be things we want. Heck, most of them will be things we can use, since they have psychologized us so well. They will be thinking for us. Subject to endless pitches, we will be identified by our consumer habits, immediately conscious of being encouraged to consume by people who seem to know us better than our friends.”
Biography:Justin Hall worked briefly at Wired in 1994, during a sabbatical from his college days at Swarthmore. He started his own irreverent e-zine, covering diverse topics and providing links all over the Web. He later worked for ZDTV and Games.com and as a freelance journalist. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)
Date of prediction: July 23, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Advertising/PR
Title, headline, chapter name: I Am Not My Habits: On Our Guard Against Targeted Advertising
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.links.net/dox/tech/targad.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Goodrich, Barbara J.