When I signed up for cable internet with Comcast, they have two different options. One is 1 mbps down for $24.95 a month and the other is 20 mbps down for $64.95. Is there a good reason to get the expensive package, or is the cheaper one good enough?

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Everywhere you turn, people advise you to ignore what people think, that you should do what you want because others' opinions don't matter.

In addition to affecting your self esteem, caring what others' think can hurt your bank account. At the most obvious level, there's the "Keeping Up with the Joneses" mentality, where people spend money just to one up their neighbors or those around you. But it doesn't have to be as extreme as that. As this post points out, so much of what we buy can be subtly motivated by a need to impress other people.

In the post, Trent points out that clothes shopping, home decorating and car purchases can all be about impressing others. I suppose it's true that I don't buy the most bare minimum of clothing to keep myself covered, that I do put thought into it.   

The announcement of the Apple iPad was definitely accompanied by a lot of hype, as all Apple announcements generally are. At least one company out there, however, thinks that all that hype has actually turned off potential buyers.

A company called Retrevo conducted an online survey and published the results on Friday. They asked the question "Have you heard about the Apple tablet?" and the answers for "Yes, but I'm not interested in buying one" went up from 26% before the launch to 52% after the launch. Now, a lot of people are contesting this interpretation, as well as finding fault with the methods used to gather the data.

No matter what happens with this particular survey, it got me thinking about the effect of hype on our purchasing decisions. Does it actually work?  More Here...