[ExI] How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

[BillK]

On 31 May 2016 at 19:21, William Flynn Wallace  wrote:
> I think what we may be missing is an ocean and we are concentrating on a
> bay.
>
> Is all the self-improvement stuff just crap designed to make you into a
> phony?  What about How to Win Friends and Influence People, which is making
> a comeback?  We deceive people all the time with fibs and little white lies
> and other deceptions.  We market ourselves and don't fool yourself that we
> don't.
>
> We see a rebounding of subliminal ads, in experiments, that do work.  And
> what about product placement?  You may notice the Coke bottle and you may
> not but your unconscious saw it in all likelihood.
<snip>
> Where did you go, Bill K?  Rejoin us, please.  Would you prevent tech people
> from doing the same kind of marketing everyone else is doing?  After all,
> this is a product that sells itself for the most part.  As for trying to
> make something trendy, it usually doesn't work.  Find a secret that ensures
> trendiness and you'll own the world.
>
>

I think what I mostly object to is 'hidden' sales techniques that prey
on the unwary / less smart.

I don't mind adverts, as they can be ignored. (Half the work my
computer does is deleting adverts and cleaning up the websites before
I see the webpage). If people had been told that buying a smartphone
would mean a life spent staring at a small screen, oblivious to their
surroundings, would they still have gone down that route?

About 10% of the 18-25 generation text *during* sex. Not before or
after, - during!

Persuading people to do / buy things they don't really want almost
amounts to coercion / theft.
If these techniques are used to persuade a majority to vote Trump into
power, is that OK? After all, people voted for him and they
(supposedly) had a free choice.
I remember reading Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders (pub.1957).
He was shocked by the techniques used then. What would he think
nowadays?

BillK