"It's a shame that the people who are listening to you the most are only interested in you because they want you and your peers to buy their product."

I disagree with that statement because there are plenty of people that listen to you and appreciate your opinions and knowledge for other reasons. Teachers, for example, spend most of their time hearing what we have to say, and if they didn't think anything we said was valid or were only interested in selling us things they wouldn't be teachers. Parents, friends, bosses, coworkers, plenty of people care what you have to say. I think it's true that many people will only hear the opinions of others and respect them because ultimately that information is going to be valuable to them later on. That's definitely true. But that doesn't mean everyone is like that.