Alexa Research Paper

What do you consider a good product? Is it the product whereby the good qualities out-weight the bad? Some of the products we buy can be very beneficial to us humans, but the cons of the products are so outrageous that they out-weight the goodness of the product and make it not worth having. Alexa is an Amazon product that is designed to take orders from us and respond back to us when we tell her to do stuff for us. She is programmed to be pleasant and assist us with technical needs. Many people believe that Alexa is a good product that has a lot of benefits for humans, but in my opinion, I think that the negative aspects of this product out numbers the goodness of the product.

Adam Ferrier is the author of the website psychlopaedia.org,

who explains how advertisers try to convince us to be part of the consumer group, but we might see this different and think they are trying to convince us to buy things we don’t need. Consumers have different reasons or aspects as to why they might prefer the Alexa product. From the article "Here's How People Say Google Home and Alexa Impact Their Lives", Daniel Terdiman talks about how the Amazon product is helpful to human life because people are engaging with their voice-activated speakers as if they were human. People don't just look at the device as an electronic toy, but rather because of its abilities, they consider it more of a friend. Not only does these things help people, but also, users say it helps them multitask more easily than before (Terdiman). It lets them do this more quickly than devices like their phones or laptop. According to Terdiman, users say they like getting fast answers to questions, and it leads them to an easier daily routine. However, just because some people like Alexa doesn't mean it's good for everyone. We tend to follow social norms by following the crowd. For example, people are afraid of doing anything new. Attempting new things always requires courage as you do not know what you might face in the future. Following the crowd gives you the cushion of comfort to make mistakes and take criticism. If we do something which is not straight as a line, we are criticized heavily by friends and parents for not doing what everyone else is doing. But after failing a couple of times we start doing what the crowd does. So, connecting back to Alexa, just because everyone might have it doesn't mean it's entirely beneficial.

Commercials shown on TV use celebrities to increase their chance in marketing. In such a commercial, they usually reveal to us how good the product is by showing us a brief clip from satisfied customers. For example, the Alexa product has some negative effects to it but when the company advertises the product, they seem to show all the positive sides about the product to convince people to buy it. Advertisers find ways to manipulate customers to buy their products. With the influence of people, advertising commercials seem to be more successful because fans usually look up to celebrities and want to have what they have. However, the products which are sold by such celebrities are not necessarily used by them.

Advertising and branding is in everyday life, but many people are still concerned about the manipulative effects of advertising. The Alexa commercial bombards the viewers with the great and positive benefits, persuading the consumers to purchase the product. These advertisers fail to alert buyers about the negative aspects of the product. The Alexa product has a negative aspect hidden from the eyes of those who believe the product is the best. From the article "What Is Alexa? It's Amazon's New Virtual Assistant", Garcia and Evon talk about how the Alexa product has a problem when we communicate with a cloud-based center because having a product like that there is no guarantee that with or without it being turned on we are safe to have private conversation. People are worried about having smart systems in their home that are always on and always listening. Having a smart system in your home inhibits privacy. This is because you would never know who is listening to your conventions behind that device. The safety of our personal conversations was never addressed or brought to the customer's attention by the company who made the products.

Many people might disagree with my opinion and think that the Alexa product is very important and helpful to us humans because people say having one of the products lets them multitask more easily than before, it lets them do things more quickly than devices like their phone or laptop, and finally, it leads them to an easier daily routine. For example, Alexa has some features that tell you the weather and traffic forecasts, control smart home devices, and buy things from Amazon. Using third-party skills, Alexa can play soothing sleep sounds at night, read stories to your children, tell you random food facts, and act as the host of a trivia game for you and your friends. People may like it because it replaces the job they must do, and they rely on the product a lot because it does everything for them. People who can afford this product may also feel that this product is very affordable for such great benefits.

A lot of companies always hide unwanted facts and details about the products. These of which are clearly seen in how commercials show to how helpful and desirable the products are, which boosts the possible number of customers in a way of letting them to understand the good uses of the product. As a result, after purchasing the goods and using them for a while, many customers become disappointed when they find out something they do not want in their products which they had not been informed about. Advertisers boost their product so much that when customers buy the product and don’t see its worth, they become extremely disappointed. For this reason, advertising commercials don't really tell us what to buy and what not to buy, they just advertise their product to either persuade us to buy or not buy depending on how convinced the person is. The Amazon Alexa commercial ad appeals in ethos by connecting to the audience's interest in celebrities which is used to convince the viewers to buy the Amazon products. This Alexa Amazon commercial ad was supported by using persuasive and empowering people to represent the company, but the viewers are the biggest influencer on the company sales. The use of pathos is showed by the Amazon Alexa commercial through emotion, entertainment and humor in the ad scenario.

Despite all the goodness listed above, I still highly disagree that the Alexa product is so good and that its benefits outweigh the negatives. This is because of the cost; it is not worth the product. There are some items that are not worth the price companies ask for. Buying a speaker that costs about a hundred dollars just for us to talk to it and command it to do some little house chores we can do ourselves is not worth it. Before wasting precious money on buying any product, consumers need to consider if the product is worth the amount of money being paid. We can easily save that $100 for something better and do all the tasks by ourselves. My personal question is when spending $100 on this Alexa product, and the product gets destroyed, are we more likely to spend another $100 on that same product to replace it. The advertisement can also create problems for people who cannot afford the product. People who may consider this product and do not have the money for it may feel limited and embarrassed. The cost of the product is not reasonable enough for everybody who is interested in the product.

In the 21st century, we all know how important technology is to us.

Technology has many benefits for us which include contacting families and friends far away from us. Regardless of the great benefits of technology, it also has some negative effects on us. It prevents human face to face interaction. Similarly to the Alexa product, it has some negative effects on humans that makes the product worthless to have. Alexa is programmed to perform some duties for us humans. Another negative aspect of this product is that it makes people lazy. Alexa responds to all our commands: for example, "asking Alexa to play specific music on your phone for you" or commanding Alexa to turn on the light in your room. Without the product, we humans do everything on our own; we personally go on our phone to select the music we want to listen to, and we turn on our light ourselves. All this helps us to keep active. We can technically say that walking from the bed to turn off the lights keeps us active and gives us a little exercise for the day. Now with this product performing all the tasks for us, we become less active and become lazy. However, Alexa could be helpful to individuals who are physically unable to do certain tasks on their own. Most people now rely on the device to perform most of our daily routines for us. Now if the product should get damaged, we will not hesitate to get another one because of how we have become so used to the things the device can do for us. Without it we will feel so helpless which I consider a negative

effect.

We humans always want an easy way out when it comes to certain tasks and we let products take over and eliminate the chance we have in doing things ourselves. In relating to the movie Wall-E, it shows us how humans around the Axiom spaceship were speaking to each other with technology and their face was always on the screen. In fact, they only focus on the screen in front of their face and are ignorant of their surroundings. They are not even aware of the human in the chair next to them. This is much like our laptops, iPads, and cell phones today. In modern society today, social networking, texting, and gadgets have replaced writing letters, making telephone calls, and simply talking to each other face-to-face. Wall-E shows us how using technology can lead to dehumanization, obesity, and a complete lack of awareness of our environment. People nowadays are playing video games instead of playing outside and getting exercise. It is no longer necessary to have a discussion face-to-face because our gadgets let us text and e-mail. Social networks like Facebook, allow us to update our friends and family with news and photos without ever having to speak with them. Alexa is another technology tool like Snapchat, Skype and a phone that has benefits to contacting people far away but it also has negatives where the connection may be hacked and it limits the connecting bond with friends and family.

In conclusion, we know that commercials play a big huge role in modern society, whereby we get to watch what is going on in the television programs and see a lot of advertisements during breaks in between our favorite TV programs or shows. Advertising is a way to persuade people to buy their things but they do not give you much information about the product. Although these kinds of products are being profitable to markets within our society, I argue that it is because celebrities are being used to sell it. The commercial for the Amazon product Alexa tries to persuade customers or buyers by using the goodness and benefits of the product for customers. Even though customers may have questions about the product like safety, its worth, and privacy, the company tries to convince buyers that the product may ensure all their needs safely. They even try to convince customers to purchase the items by making commercials with famous people. As humans, we seem to get interested in products when celebrities are involved. Knowing this, the Amazon Company tries to use this method to persuade us to buy more of the product without any questions or worries. However, it is always to know about the good and bad aspects about a product before buying, while Alexa has both, it has more negatives.