[cityhomesteader]

> and that funds Google.

... and the atlantic and most newspapers, media companies and even this site. Welcome to the consumer economy where trying to "influence" consumers to consume is the name of the game.

Advertising is at the heart of everything in our society from technology to politics to news. We don't even realize it most of the time because it's all around us like air.

[rland]

I think there needs to be some new word for this ill. Advertising is only necessary because of the breakdown of social trust that comes with fungible living in this individualized, modern world of ours. I think this nebulous ill of "advertising" extends far beyond ad tech, ad agencies, and media and right into the structure of society and the human condition itself.