Comment by psd1
19 hours ago
Much as i hate being advertised to, i do like the existence of trade, and of new products. In the old days, you would take your products to market once a week on a cart, and the market would pass by your stall. That isn't how it works any more.
Generally, how can society discover new products and services?
I would be open to having some kind of directory that i could browse at my own convenience, but that's ultimately going to devolve to paid placement.
>Generally, how can society discover new products and services?
I'm surprised you can't imagine a society where the consumer would be the one recommending products and not the producer. Any entrepreneur can find one first consumer to test their new product. And that first consumer have access to a great communication network to recommend that products to their social network — it's called "the Internet". Social networks are a great platform for people to share interesting things to their friends, family, colleagues and also to people they don't actually know ("the Internet" can connect you to strangers). Such networks cost little to operate when the content is created by users, instead of producers and their intermediaries (people favors short, insightful written text instead of catchy commercial once detoxed).
Being born in the 1990s, I did experience that "Internet", when advertising networks didn't exist and when people intentionally interacted to make connections and actively look for information. They were happy to tell about things they discovered, with little to expect in return ("influencer", aka mercenary, wasn't a job yet).