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People's Obsession with Status Symbols

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Re: People's Obsession with Status Symbols

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Tue 02 Feb 2010, 23:03:41

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stonemason', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roy', '
')Advertising that uses sophisticated psychological techniques to prey upon the viewer's biggest insecurities and deepest needs.


Those psychological techniques wouldn't work if we didn't have those vulnerabilities to begin with.


Which life experiences creates those vulnerabilities. Or are you suggesting these vulnerabilities are innate? If the latter, much recent research in child psychology and the cognitive sciences would suggest otherwise.


We are largely like ducks, psychologically, especially when we are young. We "imprint" on what we see, and that then tends to stick with us. Modern behavioral economics experiments bear this out.

I was VERY lucky being brought up by depression era parents who imprinted me with a strong work ethic and an even stronger penchant for "a penny saved is a penny earned".

What is astounding to me is how quickly this goes from being "the norm" to what we had recently, greatly adding to the recent crisis (debt, especially via showplace houses). Just 2 to 3 generations.

For immigrants to the US, where the first generation is often extremely hardworking and thrifty, this has tended to take only one generation to break down (source: "The Millionaire Next Door").
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Re: People's Obsession with Status Symbols

Unread postby mos6507 » Wed 03 Feb 2010, 00:24:44

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stonemason', '
') are you suggesting these vulnerabilities are innate?


Yep.
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Re: People's Obsession with Status Symbols

Unread postby Pretorian » Wed 03 Feb 2010, 02:42:14

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ainan', '
')What annoys me even more is that here in the UK we have to buy a TV license.


I looked it up apparently there are a bunch of countries that are doing this, and many just slap the electric consumer with the bill regardless of TV owning. Neat huh
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Re: People's Obsession with Status Symbols

Unread postby culicomorpha » Wed 03 Feb 2010, 03:41:04

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stonemason', '
') are you suggesting these vulnerabilities are innate?


Yep.


Your suggestion that we have innate vulnerabilities is demonstrated by naked women pimping commercial products? Speak for yourself Mos... :-)

So are the images selling the products, or are they selling the idea that buying the product will lead to sex?

Actually, I'll answer the question myself, and just tell you that the advertisers are simply attempting to evoke an emotional response, because they know memory is enhanced by strong emotions, and people are much more inclined to buy products they recognize, and are familiar with (leveraging what probably is an innate fear of the unfamiliar, or conversely, attraction to the familiar).

One of my side interests is in human development, and I've read a ton of books examining how we come to be. Anyway, a lot of these desires we have are really unmet primary needs that are converted into secondary needs, or wants, that can never really replace those unmet primary needs. The history of child-rearing is really instructive. If you look at a modern birth and the early life of an infant, it is wildly different from the way it was for almost the entire history of humans. Most babies nowadays are instantly removed from their mother's arms, after the obligatory embrace (if that even happens anymore) and the baby is taken away by the professionals where they do all sorts of pointless things like weighing them and so on, and then put into a nursery. But until pretty recently, the baby stayed with the mother almost continuously for years, and was breast fed for years. It used to be called "contraceptive on the hip," because while breast feeding, ovulation stops. Modern birthing and child-rearing techniques are, to put it bluntly, a massive trauma for any kind of real sense of personal security and sense of worth.

One of the books I've found especially useful in understanding all this stuff is Paul Shepard's Nature and Madness, which explores the changes in development that are a consequence of our estrangement from nature, and what it really means to grow up in a human-built environment and the losses that go along with it. He makes a very compelling case that humans have been thoroughly domesticated, and although we almost constantly trumpet what we have gained, very few are aware of exactly what we have lost. He is of the opinion that we are "emotionally crippled" and that we don't really mature the way people used to mature in nature-based societies. Emotionally immature people, not surprisingly, are much easier to manipulate and control. They will always seek secondary sources of pleasure in an attempt to recover what they can never really achieve: a true sense of belonging and fitting-in vis-à-vis nature.

A few other really worthwhile books are
My Name is Chellis, and I'm in Recovery From Western Civilization, by Chellis Glendenning
For Your Own Good, by Alice Miller
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, by Jerry Mander
A Language Older Than Words, by Derrick Jenson
Steps to an Ecology of Mind, by Gregory Bateson
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Re: People's Obsession with Status Symbols

Unread postby Mesuge » Wed 03 Feb 2010, 08:29:14

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'T')he power of TV advertising is incredible. Those who control this awesome medium can cleverly manipulate, shape, and form our thoughts, speech, and actions. They know this. Just try to pry you way into this fantastic propaganda machine. See how far you get unless you're 'one of them.'


And the best part is that the basics of it has been scientifically conceptualized long before in the age of printed press and no TV/Radio to be found in every living room. After the WWII, they just put it into higher gear (gov. & business), nowadays past several generations, we have got individual humans and social sphere, preconditioned to this propaganda as completely trustworthy and natural stuff. Presumably, the few critics and untuned loners are just the background noise, which can't change a thing.
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Re: People's Obsession with Status Symbols

Unread postby Ludi » Wed 03 Feb 2010, 15:04:16

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '
')We are largely like ducks, psychologically, especially when we are young. We "imprint" on what we see, and that then tends to stick with us. Modern behavioral economics experiments bear this out.



Hmm. I was brought up in what now seems to me an amazingly privileged and spoiled life. Nice house in the Southern California suburbs, swimming pool, dancing, piano, horseback, tennis lessons, holidays at the country club. Saw my folks try to maintain this standard under changing economic circumstances and nearly go bankrupt a couple times. Now I have a paranoia of debt and live very frugally. 8O

This duck changed her imprinting I guess. 8O
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Re: People's Obsession with Status Symbols

Unread postby mos6507 » Wed 03 Feb 2010, 17:09:05

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '
')This duck changed her imprinting I guess. 8O


Sure, it can happen. Most people go through life on autopilot, though. I don't blame anything external for this the way people here are so quick to do. I think ultimately people should take responsibility for their own lives regardless of the influences around them.

It's not Madison Avenue's responsibility to lead me through a fulfilling life.
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