If you were to ask me about Amazon four years ago I would’ve told you it’s an incredibly convenient way to shop online for all your needs, whether they are basic necessities or luxury items, Amazon has it all.
As I watched Amazon grow into a partnership between them and UMass I began to do a little research into their company to see what was really going on behind the scenes. It was not hard to discover that there company was less of a big strong online bookstore and more like a giant manipulative media octopus that had one of its many tentacles in a vast range of media forms. Amazon is a company that does a lot of good and makes the world much more convenient for everybody, but at what cost do we take for our convenience?
Over the years Amazon has grown to be a company that has acquired many other companies while integrating them and their services into their own corporate structure. By doing this they have found a place for themselves among the media/internet giants like facebook and google. You could imagine the ease of use when a company like Amazon streamlines a variety of content to work on the same platform. Those who are already familiar with Amazon’s shopping services will be able to easily hop over to Amazon’s streaming service, and then enjoy a book via the Amazon branded Kindle e-reader. All these products and services are provided by a company you can trust from previous usage both in terms of accessibility, and capability. Amazon’s sheer scope of technology and media has allowed them to make groundbreaking products and services that has allowed them to grow and keep growing after many years.
However convenient it may be, the dark side of Amazon is lurking just around the corner. Being such a big all encompassing media company, they have stretched themselves horizontally over all different forms and services, therefore making themselves an authoritative power over media matters. If you think about Amazon in the context of UMass, it is troubling to consider the influence they may have over our education.
By becoming a provider of text books and other services to students, Amazon becomes responsible for the knowledge base that can be accessed, therefore placing them in a very powerful state. They hurt the small book store businesses that get their profits from students while limiting the books to what is available with them, sometimes forcing teachers to publish books on Amazon with awful pay rates. It is without a doubt that Amazon’s involvement with UMass is convenient but does draw some harm to the system. UMass is such a large conglomerate of media that their power and influence must be kept in check, just like with any business. We want to keep it so that Amazon does not dictate how we are to live our lives, but merely assist us in doing so.