The Century of the Self

[simpleisbest]

I watched this life changing documentary last week titled “The Century of the Self.” Not sure if anyone here has seen it. It’s opened my eyes to the fact that all of modern day consumerism and desire based consumption was engineered on purpose by business owners working in tandem with psycho-analysts in 1900s. They knew how to tap into our primal desires for sex, status, power, etc. to get us to buy buy buy… and then buy some more, and they acted on this knowledge to create emotional advertisement. Back in the day companies would sell us to us based on the benefits of their products, using logic. Now, they prey upon our fears and desires, often times subliminally. It leads us to buy not from a place of calm and calculated rationality, but from impulsiveness and irrationality. It makes us over spend, lust after things things we don’t need, and harms the environment from all of the extra waste that is generated.


Looking around at the advertising and consumeristic beliefs corporations are trying to sell us on on a regular basis, I can tell this form of advertising isn’t going away any time soon. If anything, the corporations look like they’re doubling down with each passing year as they perfect their cold science of motivating us to act in line with their business interests to make their wallets bigger...


“TV advertising revenue was forecast to grow from 73 billionU.S. dollars in 2016 to around 75 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 and 82billion in 2020”


“Digitaladvertising spending is forecast to increase from nearly 60 billionU.S. dollars in 2015 to around 83 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.”


Source:https://www.statista.com/topics/979/...ing-in-the-us/


If anyone is interested in the documentary here it is (you won’t bedisappointed):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04

[ApatheticNoMore]

If it was based on psychoanalysis it was based on a bunch of flawed discredited theories*. Of course psychology is a little more advanced now, even if it too faces a reproducibility problem in many areas, it seems.

* well that's mostly where psychoanalysis stands in terms of social science, however as perspective of human nature it isn't without some insight, just it's not science.

[catherine]

...engineered on purpose by business owners working in tandem with psycho-analysts in 1900s. They knew how to tap into our primal desires for sex, status, power, etc. to get us to buy buy buy… and then buy some more, and they acted on this knowledge to create emotional advertisement. Back in the day companies would sell us to us based on the benefits of their products, using logic. Now, they prey upon our fears and desires, often times subliminally. It leads us to buy not from a place of calm and calculated rationality, but from impulsiveness and irrationality. It makes us over spend, lust after things things we don’t need, and harms the environment from all of the extra waste that is generated.


Looking around at the advertising and consumeristic beliefs corporations are trying to sell us on on a regular basis, I can tell this form of advertising isn’t going away any time soon. If anything, the corporations look like they’re doubling down with each passing year as they perfect their cold science of motivating us to act in line with their business interests to make their wallets bigger...

Hey, you don't have to tell me that. This is what I do every day (marketing). It's absolutely true that people are engineered and motivated through psychological techniques to buy.

I'd like to see that documentary. Thanks for the link.

[razz]

I believe it is neuroscientists who are used to discover the ways that best stimulate the desires. TV bypasses all those self-protective barriers.

[catherine]

I believe it is neuroscientists who are used to discover the ways that best stimulate the desires.

Sometimes it's just a PR guy + a psychoanalyst. One of my favorite examples of marketing and manipulation: The Torches of Freedom: Edward Bernays--one of the first PR guys.

http://www.oxfordpresents.com/ms/kel...es-of-freedom/

[Williamsmith]

The most effective marketing being done today uses a proven formula for success. It is the culture of fear. Mass consumption of threatening news stories, political fearmongering, and workplace harassment are just a few examples I can cite. I used it to my great benefit in law enforcement to elicit confessions and to encourage one person to sell out another person. In their quest to preserve, “self” over the community.....people will become manipulated into accepting some of the most abhorrent actions. When I detect any level of “fear” being sold.....I throw the bull crap flag and disregard the source. That’s how I know I don’t need more things, because if I truly need it...I don’t have to be scared into it.

[LDAHL]

It’s hardly a revelation that people are always trying to persuade each other. It has always been a feature of commerce, politics, religion, romance, art and literature. It doesn’t follow from that that we are all putty in the hands of master manipulators.

“Life is pain, highness. Anybody who says different is selling something”.

[Williamsmith]

It’s hardly a revelation that people are always trying to persuade each other. It has always been a feature of commerce, politics, religion, romance, art and literature. It doesn’t follow from that that we are all putty in the hands of master manipulators.

“Life is pain, highness. Anybody who says different is selling something”.

While I sympathize with the capitalists nod to the application of free will as a barrier to exploitation ..... today’s populace is awash in technology making the delivery of persuasive manipulation akin to being locked in a room where KC and the Sunshine Band is the only music you can hear. You’ll do anything to get out.

[LDAHL]

While I sympathize with the capitalists nod to the application of free will as a barrier to exploitation ..... today’s populace is awash in technology making the delivery of persuasive manipulation akin to being locked in a room where KC and the Sunshine Band is the only music you can hear. You’ll do anything to get out.

So you change the channel or log off. It’s not that hard. If we were slaves to media, we wouldn’t have the current president.

[Williamsmith]

So you change the channel or log off. It’s not that hard. If we were slaves to media, we wouldn’t have the current president.

On the contrary, I would argue that since “we” are slaves to media......we continue to have this President. The media is the Three Ring Circus that transports “us”, for the moment out of our current existence and into an entertainment frenzy. How else could you explain “The Bachelor...or Bachelorette “. There are libraries full of books no one will read because their brains have been conditioned to an attention span of a few seconds ....just long enough to deliver the “message” which will result in a purchase.