When people consider a major purchase, which of the following has the greatest impact on their choices?
recommendation from friends
information from magazines
reviews from online communities
Some people think that when people buy something, recommendation from friends has the greatest influence on their choices, whereas others think that information from magazines or reviews from online communities has the greatest effect on their choices. As for my position, I stand on the side of the former. The grounds for this are that people cannot get accurate information from magazines or online communities and their friends know them well.
To begin with, people can easily see inaccurate information from magazines or online communities. This is because companies which try to sell products make inaccurate information which draws people's attention to earn more profit. Let me give you an example related to my experience. When I was a high school student, I bought a vacuum cleaner after I saw advertisement on a magazine. According to the magazine, its power was so strong that it could clean very tiny particles that could not be cleaned by normal vacuum cleaner. However, it did not work as I saw on the magazine, and furthermore, it could not clean big particles. From this experience, I came to know that information from magazines were not always trustworthy.
On top of that, people's friends know what people like. People's friends know each other's preference because they spend a lot of time together. To exemplify what I mean, when I was a middle school student, I wanted to buy a new phone. However, I could not decide easily which brand to buy, Apple or Samsung. Therefore, I asked some advice from my friends, and they told me that I liked a small phone and wanted a phone with high-quality camera based on my behavior. As a result, I accepted my friends advice and bought an IPhone, and I really satisfied with it.
Taking all of these things into account, I have arrived at the rational conclusion that advice from friends is most affective on people choices when people buy some stuff because information from other resources can be inaccurate and people's friends know them