Derek Thompson, a journalist for the Atlantic and the host for the podcast Crazy/Genius, spoke about how advertising companies online succeed in making money and major societal change. He also discussed how ethics online and in journalism can have a more positive impact on the growing negative outcomes of online freedom. Free entertainment companies charge absolutely nothing to their users, yet make billions of dollars more than companies that do charge their users, because they sell their audience to advertising companies. This business model is incredibly profitable, but it has ethical consequences due to the unprecedented fake news, extremism growth, and other unethical internet side effects. Thompson argued that these popular advertisements can occur because fiction outsells nonfiction. An audience is much more keen to pay attention and spend their time on something dramatic or enticing and these types of events are most usually not nonfiction. He believes that without an underlying of ethics, attention gives way to false stories. This alone can undermine journalistic integrity as companies tend to favor making money over not and advertising companies make them their money. This argument brought light to how easily companies allow fake news and other false stories appear to their audience because of their money making processes. Unfortunately, it makes sense that a company that is free of charge that can be so incredibly successful isn’t going to want to put their mode of income in jeopardy.
Another topic Thompson discussed that I found really interesting was the way online dating has changed society. One major change is that online dating has successfully shown increases in connecting minority populations. People in minority populations are no longer isolated by their surroundings when it comes to meeting a partner. This side of online dating is one I had never considered before and casts a much brighter light onto online dating. This change can be linked to an even more fundamental change online dating has had on how we make important decisions in our lives. Thompson discussed research that shows the internet has almost completely displaced friends and family in the decision making process of, what he called, one of the most important decisions of our lives. This may be good in the sense that it broadens our inner circle and releases us from hometown biases. But, it is fascinating to realize that we no longer rely so much on the people closest to us to find someone to commit to for the rest of our lives.
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