How Online Shopping Makes Suckers Of Us All Analysis

Jerry Useem has written “How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All” to show the online shoppers and readers of “The Atlantic” how price discrimination occurs. He has decided to speak about the problem with online prices since there has been a rise in the number of online shoppers. In the article, “How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All,” Jerry Useem starts off by explaining how the prices of certain products vary depending on when the customer looks at the product. To add on, he goes on to inform us that in the past, buyers and sellers would have to go through haggling in order to get the best deal possible, he then compares the haggling to how people get the best deals now. Furthermore, he presents to us information about price discrimination and the different ways in which it …show more content…
To begin, Useem explains that these companies “are now staring back through the screen. They are comparison shopping us” (64). In this quote, he uses “us” and “them” as a way to enforce the “us against them” narrative and by using these words it shows how Useem includes himself with the audience which results in a stronger connection between the audience and the author. Furthermore, when he says, “they are comparison shopping us” it reinforces the idea that companies are violating the readers privacy which then results in a sense of concern in the readers, therefore the author uses his writing to affect the readers emotions. Moreover, he also uses certain words throughout the article such as “war,” “battle,” and “truce” to invoke a feeling of anger in the reader. By using these words, it makes the reader realize that there is a major problem that they are fighting grave problem, it also helps to show them that they are being taken advantage of and talks in a manner that basically tells them to do something about