zlacker

>>ksec+(OP)
I have a question:

Does the current state our attention economy and advertising ecosystem play a major role in the destruction of our planet, depletion of resources, and perhaps the rise in depression through hyper-consumerism?

>>mattwe+xe
I think it's a harder stretch to say it plays a major role in the destruction of the planet and depletion of resources but in my totally non-expert opinion I am positive that the rise in depression is coupled with it.

Advertising has always been a thing but advances in the last 50-70 years in tech and human sciences has turned the problem up to 11. Increasingly every little move we make and thing we say is recorded, analyzed, run through an algorithm, then used to trick the lizard part of our brain into opening our wallet.

Humans were not meant to be under CONSTANT psychological assault like this and if I were king I would outlaw marketing departments and severely restrict advertising across the board.

>>lp0_on+Lj
I think the argument would be that prior to advertising as we know it today, people bought things because they needed them, and at a substantially lower level of consumption. For example you might need a pair of work boots, walking shoes, and dress shoes. Advertisements for 19th century shoes generally focused on their features, like quality, comfort, fit or value.

Born from WWI's propaganda was the idea of using communication to convince someone of something against their interest or for your policy objectives. For example, all x are monsters and you should risk your life to go fight them, using emotional responses and conceptual associations. “make the world safe for democracy.”[1] After the war it was realized these same techniques could be used to make people buy things they didn't need. Shoes are often now sold by convincing you they will make you more athletic, cool or similar self image. As a result there is now no limit on the number of shoes that a person "needs".

This consumer culture[3], and was somewhat a conscious decision in response to the challenge faced by business from the ability to produce outstripping people's demands or overproduction. Consumers were trained via advertising, in order to keep production and growth humming, at the unseen expense of overconsumption. From Paul M. Mazur's :American Prosperity: Its Causes and Consequences" in 1928,

"Advertising is an educational force. If effective, desires increase, standards of living are raised, purchases are made; purchases create production, production creates purchasing power, and the circle can be made complete if desire is at this point strong enough to convert that power into actual purchases.

Of course there exists theoretically that danger point when consumption has reached its limit. Such a breaking point is probably non-existent.[2]

[1]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-woodrow-wilsons-p...

[2]https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/01/21/desires/

[3]https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-brief-history-of-consum...