Monday, 2 November 2009

'Voices'

'Voices’ are everywhere. Not just audible voices, but visual ones too; as the saying goes, “A picture says a thousand words.”

We hear ‘voices’ sometimes without even consciously listening to them: how many times have you suddenly noticed a song going round in your head, and then realised (or not realised) it was playing in a shop you left ten minutes ago, and you hadn’t even been aware at the time?
Our minds are powerful things, and one of the ways we process information so quickly is we read words as wholes (anyone ever seen that thing where they mix up the letters and you can still understand the sentence? http://www.toxicdrums.com/typoglycemia.html) so we are constantly (and very quickly) taking in so many words, especially from adverts.

The world is full of adverts wherever you go: on the television, in the cinema, on trains, on the walls of the underground, on billboards, etc, so the amount of information we are constantly being fed on a daily basis is enormous. You can’t escape it, which in a way could be seen as good because it can help give us a sense of cultural identity, i.e. all being familiar with the same things, and so the ablity to communicate on the same level (as far as products are concerned anyway).

The voice of advertising is powerful: how many of us can quote commercial catch lines from when we were children? “They’re grrreat,” “Cheery corn, cheery oats, cheery rice and wheat, they’re delicious and nutritious, Cheerioes so good to eat.” (*cringe*) Enough said. Advertisement works by trying to breed familiarity in people so they say “Oh I know that brand,” and therefore they trust it.

We all have what psychologists call an “Inner Voice,” this being the scripts we subconsciously read to ourselves over and over. They can become evident I find, during rhythmic tasks such as running, or playing scales on guitar. At first it is easy not to even notice these voices, but after a while it can become really obvious (especially if they are negative, “You can’t do it”). During a race, spectators will often cheer for the person they are supporting, “Come on! You can do it!” and this helps the athlete to subconsciously internalise the voice, because our subconscious learns by repetition, so for the athlete, being constantly told that they “Can,” helps reinforce the internal belief that they “Can.”

Whereas people who don’t believe that they, “Can,” will often fall short of their potential, because they don’t believe in themselves.

This video I found describes this pretty well, and is really inspiring (Will Smith is ace!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEMEBBwO6J8.

What I’m saying through all this is that the voice of advertisment media often tells us that we need more and more to be happy, and this can become part of our ‘inner voice.’ They can also try and play on insecurities; take for example Gilette: their slogan is, “The best a man can get,” so what are they trying to imply? If you don’t have a Gilette, then you are less of a man.

Subconscious scripts are internalised either by you yourself dwelling on something, or having others internalise them for you by saying them over and over to you (Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me - because I refuse to internalise them). Saying the alphabet over and over as a child was boring, and you probably weren't really thinking about it too much, but it went in. This is also is the case with creeds and explicit goverment propaganda (like in North Korea) etc which are repeated over and over and consequently become internalised, then a part of you, and then you end up behaving in accordance with it.

But I often find that the more I have, the more cluttered my life feels, and I end up sometimes just wanting to get rid of everything and keep only the bare essentials.

People who come back from poorer places often report that people there with “Nothing,” are actually much happier, because they are not bogged down by materialism. In fact, just thinking about it now (and I’m DEFINITELY not saying that people in poorer countries don’t need help and support, because a lot of big transnational corporations leech other countries, leaving them with all but nothing (I'll save that for another blog)) but is it possible that some charities view and present certain civilizations as poor because they have been led to believe by society that to be happy you have a certain amount of stuff???

To summarise, I don’t think we can completely avoid how we think in relation to certain things because they are ingrained so deep within us and our culture, and I think greed and ‘wanting more’ is part of human nature, however I think that we can be aware of what we are being subconsciously told at least, and by being aware, we can make steps to control these things, instead of having them control us.

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