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well as the Appendix “Summary of Principles,” should hold special prominence
for people studying how advertisers use these techniques and, additionally, how
terrorist websites have succeeded at times in influencing people to their side.
Cyber products are the current rage. The names of these products are
confusing (with combinations of capital letters and numbers) and sometimes
misleading. It is also difficult to tell what the products do. The MOTO RAZR
V3 is a phone, not a razor. The Monaco V4 is a concept watch, not a car. If
listed separately from the product itself, the names are even more unintelligible.
The Toshiba 26HF84, the Samsung MM-A700, the Suunto n3i, the MuVo
Slim, the MyFi, and the Panasonic PV-GS120 are a high-definition wide-screen
TV, a “smart watch,” an MP3 player, a Sprint phone, a portable satellite radio,
and camcorder, respectively. 29 Cyber terminology is confusing too. According
to a recent BBC report, the average home computer user is not sure about the
meaning of pharming (fraudsters redirect net users from legitimate to fake
sites); phishing (fake email or popup scams to get you to reveal personal
information for criminal gain); rogue dialer (software that installs itself on
computers and changes settings to dial a premium rate number instead of usual
dialup accounts); spyware (small programs that secretly monitor sites visited);
keylogging (software/hardware to track keystrokes on a computer to gather
passwords and credit card numbers); and other terms that all warn people about
online security threats. 30
Thus, the effect of cyber-based technologies on the population as a
whole is huge and not limited just to information. There are emotional, societal,
economic, psychological, and political effects in addition to easy access and
sharing of information. There is a mind-boggling array of cyber technologies
that control many aspects of our daily activities and numb the average
consumer with their ubiquity. New technologies have enabled the civilian
world to work faster and more efficiently. They ease us through our daily lives,
assist us in times of trouble, help us to enjoy our entertainment time more
clearly and deeply, keep us more closely connected to family, inform us of local
and international events of importance, and amaze us with their spread and
increasing accessibility. Governments and businesses worldwide are wired to
receive news instantaneously and are using cyber technologies to either do their
jobs better or to keep them informed about competitors. Many of these devices
were financially out of reach to the average consumer at the start of the Cyber
Age, but they are now available to the masses as witnessed by the plethora of
cell phones in the hands of teenagers and families of all incomes. For example,
there are now over 159 million cell phones in the US and, even more amazing,
29
These items were taken from Time, 29 November 2004, pp. 63-136.
30 “‘Geek Speak’ Confuses Net Users,” BBC News, 6 April 2005 from news.bbc.co.uk.
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