Long gone are the days when one could click on a You Tube video and get content immediately. Popular sites now monetize their wares with advertisements that let you "skip ad" in 4 seconds to get to the beef; in some cases a full 14 seconds of advertisements must be endured.
This trend leads me to contemplate the very nature of advertising. Why would a business allott their hard won dineros for an intangible thought form to be tossed into the general population in the hopes that the great washed will flock to their doors?
Because - spoken words coupled with visual images have a sneaky way of wiggling into neuronal pockets of the brain to live on and subconsciously bug us with their presence. Capitalists long ago understood this, so much so that our news and television shows are really just an entertaining break from commercials.
If advertising can influence us in their brief moment on a screen or radio, then what could a friend, parent, relative or boss do to our brain with a repeated onslaught of messages? If they are positive we will get a healthy individual. If the messages are mixed we get a conflicted individual. It they are negative, we get a sorely troubled individual.
Thus warned, it behooves us to express ourselves with life-affirming words, sentences and paragraphs. "Life-affirming" does not connote idiot compassion but rather a way of being-ness that seeks to bring about harmony and peace. Given the unenlightened nature of humankind, this may seem like a pie-in-the-sky idea. Luckily, enough sages and saints also walk this earth lighting the path to a more sane existence.
This trend leads me to contemplate the very nature of advertising. Why would a business allott their hard won dineros for an intangible thought form to be tossed into the general population in the hopes that the great washed will flock to their doors?
Because - spoken words coupled with visual images have a sneaky way of wiggling into neuronal pockets of the brain to live on and subconsciously bug us with their presence. Capitalists long ago understood this, so much so that our news and television shows are really just an entertaining break from commercials.
If advertising can influence us in their brief moment on a screen or radio, then what could a friend, parent, relative or boss do to our brain with a repeated onslaught of messages? If they are positive we will get a healthy individual. If the messages are mixed we get a conflicted individual. It they are negative, we get a sorely troubled individual.
Thus warned, it behooves us to express ourselves with life-affirming words, sentences and paragraphs. "Life-affirming" does not connote idiot compassion but rather a way of being-ness that seeks to bring about harmony and peace. Given the unenlightened nature of humankind, this may seem like a pie-in-the-sky idea. Luckily, enough sages and saints also walk this earth lighting the path to a more sane existence.
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