#2  Are You Persuaded

 

            I just finished reading Coercion: Why we listen to what ‘They’ say, by Douglas Rushkoff. In this, Rushkoff’s writes about Coercion, and how we are constantly being persuaded and influenced in our everyday decisions. From the cloths we wear to the brand of soda we drink, there’s some type of marketing strategy trying to control how and what we buy as well as what we like.

            Rushkoff is telling us that there are hidden persuasions everywhere; we just need to be more aware and learn to recognize these tactics. Take a super market for example, the first thing you see (or smell) is the deli. ‘They’ hope the fresh produce will put you in to shopping mode. Then ‘They’ take the everyday shopping items like eggs, milk, and bread and spread them throughout the store, hoping that it will increase the chance you will buy other items as you walk through the store. When you do make it to the checkout line, you find it surrounded by impulse items.

 Rushkoff also talks about the internet and public media, and how he believed this new media would bring an end to the age of manipulation. I think the internet is a double edged sword. On one hand, it gives us tremendous power. It allows us to research, do price comparison, post our own videos, and share our own ideals with the world. On the other hand, marketers have adapted their tactics and found ways to persuade and control us through the internet. From pop-up to spam to advertisements and tracking cookies, not only can ‘They’ get to us through the internet, they can track our purchases so they can better target us.

            I really liked how the story changed at the end. How Rushkoff, throughout most of his story was telling the reader of how effective marketing strategies are and warning us about media control, only to find out that he was using the very same persuasion tactics on the reader. He showed how easily you can become a victim of persuasion and not even recognize it. I think he was very effective at getting his point across. I really enjoyed this article and would recommend it to someone else.

 

^{#1 Question for ourselves}

I just finished reading Michael Ryan's "An Introduction to Criticism". I think Ryan was talking about cultural, and how cultural has evolved over time, how it is used in different societies around the world. How words and stories can be powerful cultural instruments that can change the world by changing how people think, perceive, believe and act. How people’s cultural and people’s viewpoints are different depending on their perspective of the world. How societies simplify complex events in the world, which they really just don’t understand.

            I agree with many of the author’s points, like the fact that we absorb preferences from the cultural in which we grow up in and that “who we are” is constructed by the people we come in to contact with as we grow up. I believe that many of our preferences such as taste, music, and art come from our cultural. It seems societies with different culturals all around the world have their own preference for food and music. The people a person comes in contact with, especially as their growing up, has a huge impact on who they are, how they think, act and their view points of the world.

            I also agree with the author that terms like terrorism misrepresent reality, that the Middle East or the world of Islam is too complex to be summed up in a single term. I think many people, especially American’s think of the Middle East and Islam when they think of terrorism. Most think terrorist hate America because of our freedoms. I think most Americans think of the world as good vs. evil, and that America is always on the side of good. That’s what we want to think, that makes it easier and simpler. Most Americans never think of our adversary’s perspective. That maybe the people in the Middle East and Islam, feel threatened and surrounded by America’s military might. That America is selfish and greedy, and that our only interest overseas is securing, for ourselves, all the oil rich countries of the Middle East. That America can do as it likes, support and defend who they like and invade and conquer who they don’t. I think for the most part, at least I like to think, Americas intentions overseas our good, although I can easily see how some people in the world could see America as “world bullies”.

             I think this article shows us we need to open our eyes and look at the world in a different way. We need to stop being lead around and to start questioning for ourselves, things that we’ve maybe never thought about in the world. We need to realize that there are different perspective on every   issue and not just our own. Until we do this we will never truly understand the world we live in.