Outrageously bright and eye-popping advertisements line the highway as I start to head back home in my beat up ’98 Lumina. I have hooked up my brand spanking-new eight gigabyte third generation blue ipod Nano and I am cruising to the tunes of Bruce Springsteen blasting out my windows. I sip casually from my Diet Coke as I feel the vibration of my hot pink Razr phone in my pocket, sending me another text message from the boyfriend. I toss back my empty can of Pringles toward the back where pieces of miscellaneous trash clutter the seats and floor.
I am an American consumer. I am constantly consuming, constantly striving to get something better than my friends, my family, and my neighbors. Up until I saw “The Persuaders” and read the readings we have gotten through so far, I thought I was above all this manipulative advertising that those mega corporations put forth on the television and the Internet. Clearly, I am not. I bought my iPod, my phone and the chips all for the same reasons everyone else was buying them. This makes my life seem slightly more depressing.
Knowing that companies are reaping benefits from these ads would not bother me as much if I was kept in ignorance about how deep they really go into our minds. “The Persuaders” frightened my immense because it reminded my very much of the book, Feed by M.T. Anderson. Thinking about the dire effects advertising and the possibilities of the manipulative companies had on the characters in that book, it makes me wonder how close the world is to putting computer chips in everyone’s brains to make shopping and education more “easy” to access.
I am an American consumer. I am constantly consuming, constantly striving to get something better than my friends, my family, and my neighbors. Up until I saw “The Persuaders” and read the readings we have gotten through so far, I thought I was above all this manipulative advertising that those mega corporations put forth on the television and the Internet. Clearly, I am not. I bought my iPod, my phone and the chips all for the same reasons everyone else was buying them. This makes my life seem slightly more depressing.
Knowing that companies are reaping benefits from these ads would not bother me as much if I was kept in ignorance about how deep they really go into our minds. “The Persuaders” frightened my immense because it reminded my very much of the book, Feed by M.T. Anderson. Thinking about the dire effects advertising and the possibilities of the manipulative companies had on the characters in that book, it makes me wonder how close the world is to putting computer chips in everyone’s brains to make shopping and education more “easy” to access.
To me, it seems like everything is a business nowadays, even education and schools. Seeing what schools punch out the highest test score results is one of the number one things parents look for when enrolling their children in schools. I personally believe standardized testing is a load of bullshit (pardon my language) and that children, teenagers and adults all have different ways of thinking due to environmental and home factors that cause our brains to think different. As a teacher-in-training, I am fearful of only being permitted to teach students what will be on the PSSA’s or the SAT’s. This is not what education should be about; it should not be a business.
Even when I look at the current political campaign, I am absolutely confused as to what to believe. Reading through Don’t Think of an Elephant may have had some good points for progressives and liberals like myself; however I feel as though it did not offer me more insight to help me believe in the “right” political candidate for me. Perhaps that was expecting too much of the book, and I should only use it as a guide, but with my mounting frustrations with the world today, I am desperate for any help I can get to understand the rhetoric being used against me and how I can combat it. If that was what the book’s purpose actually was it did not do it’s job for me or I have been so wrapped up in my midterms I missed some key points.
The fact of the matter is that I am fearful of the future of America and the world if advertising and rhetoric are used for the forces of evil, rather for the forces of good. I do not want to end up being sucked into our pop culture and constantly feel the need to “fit in” and thus buy everything I need to do that, according to those lovely marketing campaigns.
Maybe I should get rid of my phone, iPod and vow never to eat those delicious, crunchy, salty chips in a can ever again. But I know because they are what is “in”, what is “now”, I know the trashcan will be a lot farther away than actually think.
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