Optics, optics, optics!

I think that most people don’t realise just how much words can hold sway over our internal decision-making. We invent our first impressions within the first seven seconds of seeing something, based off of our prior experience (which can be swayed too). This means, that basically, we make our judgement on if we “like” something or don’t “like” something just after we first see it.


Something that looks good, that can pay a good marketing team, can obviously manipulate this, and make you like something. It won’t work all the time, but it’ll work enough of the time to the degree that it doesn’t really matter about the skeptics and the people who think they can see through it. Most people won’t even notice they’re being swayed.


This thing moves with the times, otherwise it doesn’t work. Now, we’ve got the archetype of “chaotic social media admin” that is really hard to spot as manipulative advertising, which it always is.


This is on the whole, what brands can bank on. Because they don’t need to stick to the truth, they don’t need to contribute the development of individuals or communities, and they don’t need to do anything other than get you to buy, today or tomorrow.


We’re getting used to living a life outside of our control. One that is shifting, to almost entirely rely on external norms and external stimuli, existing in a haze, to work, buy, eat, drink, and die. To the economy, that’s the only thing anybody does, and the living and the consciousness does not change your numbers, but by making life only about these things, that increases your numbers, and increases theirs.


But this is a massive problem for more reasons than one. Sure, external norms have their place, but we have an inner life, we have an individuality, we have preferences, we have internal principles that are being (or have been) squashed by a world that cares more about expectations than us. As a pretty general rule, external norms should be shaped by us, actively, as an emanation of the individuality. They should not change us, or restrict us, and right now, even if you might not realise it, they do.