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Comment by jariel | Hacker News Reader

Some companies build their entire brand off of these kinds of things. When I was in my 20's I would have told people they were crazy if someone were to have told me this, but we should be about that cynical. They are systems mostly designed to make money and almost all communications are oriented to this goal.

I think most people accept capitalism, or accept that companies might act in self interest. The harder part is accepting how manipulative they can be with the power of their brand especially.

If you 'feel' a certain way about a brand, and that feeling has anything to do with a morality, then be doubly concerned.

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> The harder part is accepting how manipulative they can be with the power of their brand especially.

Individuals do it just as much, most easily visible on Facebook and Instagram, but also in other non-Internet interactions.

Not really. Several studies show people who perform in these ways are disliked heavily by their peers it.

I don’t know what dislike means, but it’s obviously attracting enough eyeballs from someone to create multi billion dollar cash flow at Facebook and other social media companies.

Anecdotally, all the people who keep their head down and stay modest don’t advance politically. Tooting your own horn is basically a requirement.

Yes, we're all keyed into morality, which is why it's such a powerful lever for companies to pull.

Whether it's water, shoes, or software, they're keen on 'using the right language to make us happy' and how that lines up with actual practices if often a different thing.

Also - it's used internally at companies as well. Everyone wants to think they are doing some kind of 'good'.

It's a weird artifact of a few modern companies in countries where culture is variable or the rules are less established by society, so you see this more in the 'New World'. Or rather, I should say, it's just more apparent there. 'Old World' companies do this but in much more traditional ways.

It's complicated and also easy for young people to get 'too skeptical' - I find this happens when at the age we start learning the world isn't as nice as we were taught growing up and then flip to cynicism. The reality is that it's always grey and it takes actual insight to try to make any sense of it.

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