For many people, self-help has become a way of saving cost especially
in legal settings, with self-help services available to help with
routine legal matters from filing wills to domestic processes
to recording property deeds. In merchandising, tendencies toward
self-help have in recent years resulted in automated self-check-out
payments systems. Self-help fuel pumps replaced full-service petroleum
pumps in the United States in the late 20th Century.
The diverse genres in which self-help concepts are applied
are bound together by an expansion of technologies that empower
individuals to conduct both trivial and profound activities.
Self-help book publishing arose from decentralization of ideology,
from a growth of publishing industries using expanded printing
technologies and at the pinnacle of growth, from the spread
of new psychological sciences. Likewise, self-help legal services
grew around expanded access to document production technology.
The Internet, and the ever-expanding selection of commercial
and information services it offers, is an example of movement
toward self-help on a grand scale.
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