I find it amusing how my attitude toward writing reviews changed. Early on I used to feel that we, the little people, can use the Internet for good, band together, and share information about products to "stick it to the man." Nowadays, I feel writing reviews is ironically only helping the richest man in the world and now actively avoid it.

Sites like Amazon need the review layer to substitute the physical contact of brick and mortar that they removed. Pretty common story by now - instead of paying employees in stores, they crowd source the value for free, and we're happy to go along since we get lower prices in the bargain.