https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gb5_ATURCM
When thinking about Amazon, I have always seen it as a shopping tool to get what I want from the internet straight to my home. When I first discovered it I was in heaven, I was able to find the products that I wanted and compare the same product across different sellers. I would pour over reviews making sure what I was purchasing was legit, and after receiving the product I would often leave a review myself returning the favor. With the Amazon Prime free trial for students, I was hooked even more, I was able to order something and have it in my hands two days later making it that much more convenient for me.
After reading some of the articles and engaging in the class discussions, I’ve come to realize that there’s a lot more to Amazon than just a website I like to buy products from. Amazon is platform that connects people through its use of selling products. It connects me as a customer to the buyer, they have something I want (product) and I have something they want, (money). Amazon also has the ability through their platform to create connectedness across many aspects of consumerism. It includes a variety of people from advertisers, to the users themselves, to the clients, and creates partnerships through its use of platform.
Along with being a platform and creating partnerships, it has recently hit more close to home with Amazon’s partnership with Umass and textbooks. This partnership will begin to change the way students access their textbooks and will determine if this will be a change for the better. It brings up questions like will the books be cheaper? If so by how much? How can we be certain they will be? And who is really benefiting from this exchange to begin with? Overall, Amazon has proven to be more than just a shopping website. It is a huge company that through its platform has the ability to bring people together and affect others. It also reinforces the idea that although it does a lot for its buyers, it is essentially nothing without us; the customers and users.
