Pforzheim (dpa/lsw) – The Pforzheim communication scientist Jörg Tropp calls for more early education for online advertising. Even the youngest should be better equipped to deal with Instagram, Facebook, Google and Co. “We have to secure our consumer sovereignty,” he warned in an interview with the German Press Agency. Various studies have shown: “We run the risk of becoming blind to commercial messages.”
A Stanford study of almost 8,000 young people in the US showed that they can hardly distinguish between news and advertising on the Internet. According to an investigation by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and others, 56 percent of those surveyed over the age of 18 thought that an editorially designed advertisement was information.
“Algorithms collect and link everything they can find about us in order to gain insights into our preferences, desires, needs and intentions,” explained the Pforzheim professor. In his book “Vernetzte Verführungen” Tropp also shows that users do not have to be defenseless. With a few tricks and clicks, they could counter the temptations of the consumer industry in a more self-determined manner. “We don’t have to allow every cookie out of convenience.”