Too Much Media and Marketing

You grab a book off the shelf called "How to Have a Better Life". Brilliant, it says: get millions right now and achieve the looks and charm of a god/goddess, except that you’re unemployed, live in ropey digs, feel like garbage and think you look uglier than the sole of a boot (you don’t). You’re damned (you’re not) and have no prospects in life, only seeing the outside looking in, unable to look beyond.

This is how life can sometimes seem - out of control. You see no qualities within or prospects for a better future without because of all the lucky-lucky people who are richer, better looking and more advantageous than you. It's all about you, you, you and how unlucky you are, or all about them, them, them and how it’s their fault for letting you wallow in this squalid hole called life. It's not your fault at all - it never is - but always theirs, or maybe it’s God’s fault for neglecting and hating you. It's everyone else’s fault for giving you less while everyone else seems to have more.

This how you feel when consumed by marketing and advertising. Self-pitying and blaming everyone else for your plight in life.

Your dwellings probably aren't that bad and you’ve probably got access to enough money for the basics, but it's easy to exaggerate diminutive status and unworthiness. Because of all those people out there, marketing professionals and influencers telling you how to act, feel and behave. How to be the perfect person that they want you to be. It drives you nuts and really sucks! It's impossible to be content with what you’ve got, but think about it, you never see an unhappy dog if it’s got food, shelter and caring owners. We on the other hand are always looking for more.

Old, ugly, fat, thin, rich, poor, it's never good enough, but it's irrelevant. You can put a secret protective dome around yourself to disconnect from the garbage by turning off media-based content and asking yourself... can I be quiet for one whole minute? Can I think or dream for once without being influenced by others?

Simplicity can be beautiful. Animals are simple and lovely. Maybe it's better to isolate yourself from marketing influences by learning to self-reflect, cut away from the pack for a while, drop the intensity and just be yourself. This is maybe one of the most important aspects of life.

The push and shove, constant advertising, mid-roll ads, buy this, buy that. Be like them!

Maybe we listen to all this marketing nonsense because life's a giant crap shoot anyway and our lives mean relatively nothing in universe speak, by wasting thousands of hours trawling through other people's influences just to fill in time as though we’re immortal. It’s an automatic impulse for an instant feel-good fix, while forgetting the most important factor of all: time that will never be given back.

We compensate for time spent at work, study, toil, chores, commuting, etc., by grabbing the first dopamine rush available. Sitting in a queue and Candy Crushing the time away, or watching someone else do it, grabbing the next fix as though it's important instead of using this time to think, reflect, plan or be at peace, to appreciate simplicity. We fill in the gaps by absorbing media that helps us do nothing. We turn on, tune in, grab a free minute, flick a switch and watch channels, then repeat that over and over again until our spare time and creativity are gone. Our lives are getting more intense and consumptive every year because of targeted marking. We retreat into what’s available for immediate pleasure, but end up resorting to safety and puerile contentment that gets us nowhere.

Disconnect everything and simply switch off. This improves your life. Your brain tells you to delay, procrastinate, YouTube away, etc., for one more fix. This is exhausting and counter-productive, burning the candle at both ends and making you feel knackered.

You convince yourself that another half hour won't hurt, which turns into multiple hours that undermine your life.

Targeted marketing is getting more intense and AI driven as it constantly bombards us with what we supposedly need, when we actually need none of it. Not a jot.