A few days ago I was discussing advertising with a friend of mine studying psychology, and she explained how her class are exploring the strong evidence that low self-esteem and materialism are connected, that, in general, the more people buy the less happy they feel, and the less happy they feel the more they buy, that materialism is a self-defeating and perpetual circle, and advertising is the treadmill feeding people onto that circle.
She told me polls indicate that happiness among Americans has been in steady decline since 1955, the same year the following philosophy: "Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate." was put into effect and began driving the economy.
Now I've long disliked adverts, believing whenever we want something we are less happy than before we wanted that something, and since adverts are all about making us want all they do is make us unhappy. But up until recently I didn't realise just how strong an impact they seemingly have on the happiness of mankind. So should they be banned? (this is clearly a rhetorical question, I realise it's never gonna happen, we live in an age where money is God and consumerism is the common religion, every one of us is brainwashed into feeding the economy and evaluating people based on their contribution to that economy).
I did want to put a poll atop the thread but am too ignorant to know how.
She told me polls indicate that happiness among Americans has been in steady decline since 1955, the same year the following philosophy: "Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate." was put into effect and began driving the economy.
Now I've long disliked adverts, believing whenever we want something we are less happy than before we wanted that something, and since adverts are all about making us want all they do is make us unhappy. But up until recently I didn't realise just how strong an impact they seemingly have on the happiness of mankind. So should they be banned? (this is clearly a rhetorical question, I realise it's never gonna happen, we live in an age where money is God and consumerism is the common religion, every one of us is brainwashed into feeding the economy and evaluating people based on their contribution to that economy).
I did want to put a poll atop the thread but am too ignorant to know how.
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