Too Much of a Good Thing?

The internet is considered by many to have already made as large of an impact on society as the printing press had. The possibilities of online interaction are still expanding. Will we see a web 3.0? No one knows for sure and not many people are bold enough to say what the internet will have in store for us because nobody predicted great innovations like myspace, amazon, or p2p sharing.

The effects that the internet has on American economies are an interesting subject because there is a potential problem. That potential problem is loss of jobs due to the increasing use of the internet. We have already begun to see the effects of p2p sharing, free online news and much more. These are benefits as of now, but what will happen to music artists and journalists jobs? Like stated previously, nobody knows for sure but it can and should be argued that rapid expansion of the internet is like playing with fire. We must be careful and monitor the internet’s growth because there are many jobs at stake.

Could the internet lead to the death of a salesman? It’s possible because we have already begun to see minor effects. For example, like I have stated in my previous blogs, I work as a retail electronics salesman and my company’s main competitor is not the electronics store down the street; it’s online wholesalers like Amazon or NewEgg. Because the big discount online stores don’t have to pay employees like myself to sell a product, they can afford to sell products close to cost. Often times, if the company meets a certain quota for selling a particular brand so many times, they are reimbursed by that company. But how do customers purchase a product that they haven’t heard about? There are numerous customer reviews featured on the product pages of websites that anyone can read. Instead of listening to a review given by a salesman, who doesn’t own the product, you can read reviews from actual customers, who have already purchased it.

Why do customers leave reviews? Well, as stated in my previous blogs, online gift economies are becoming increasingly important because customers assist other customers without any expectation of direct reciprocation. These product reviews function as a customer union, where customers from all over connect to help each other make a better informed decision to lessen the possibility of buyer’s remorse. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, most retail stores have begun offering customer reviews online as of this past Christmas season to compete with Amazon.

We have heard much talk in recent years about the dangers of outsourcing labor to India and other regions of the world. Instead of outsourcing manufacturing jobs, we are beginning to see an increasing trend in the outsourcing of customer service and IT jobs thanks to IT technology. It sounds like a paradox if you ask me.

If you need to request information regarding your newly purchased computer or your credit card bill, you may be speaking to someone in India, who speaks broken English and is taking jobs away from the U.S. The internet has made this possible because companies can provide these people who are outsourced labor with your customer information over the company network. Here are just a few examples of companies that I have dealt with, who outsource customer service reps: Best Buy, Verizon, Dell, Microsoft, Linksys, DirecTV, and Sirius. The numbers are frightening according to PBS, who claims 3.3 million jobs will be lost by 2015 according to a study by Forrester Research. Apparently Microsoft has invested $400 million dollars into India for customer service.

What about the decline of newspaper readership due to the internet? Today, you can read all news articles online on cnn.com for example or you can check out what other people think about the latest political news on political blogs, like digg.com. The internet offers more interaction, where anyone can become someone. Could bloggers be considered journalists? Sure, it’s possible, why not? Credentials aren’t required online to become a great writer or thinker in my opinion. Why pay for a newspaper to read the daily news when it can be found for free on the internet? According to the San Francisco Chronicle, newspaper readership continues to decline due to the internet and newspapers have had a hard time convincing internet users that newspapers are the most reliable source for information.

Many manufacturing jobs are going away due to outsourcing of unskilled labor. The service industry is where America’s jobs seem to be headed. If we aren’t careful with the internet, many jobs could potentially be lost due to computers and the internet. The internet will continue to be a good thing as long as its growth is monitored.

References

Moyers, Bill. (2003, August 29). PBS Now. Politics and Economy: Foreign Service. Retrieved April 22, 2007 from http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/jobflight.html

Richmond Times Dispatch. (2006, December 7). More retailers offering online customer reviews. Retrieved April 22, 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/universe/

Said, Carolyn. (2006, October 31). The San Francisco Chronicle. Fewer readers of papers; Circulation drops at daily publications again nationwide. Final Edition. Retrieved April 20, 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/universe/