Why we feel so busy
Do you feel busy all the time, like no matter how much you do, you still have more to do?
I used to feel that way, but less so now. I still have to pay bills, buy food, and so on. It’s more that I recognized how our culture rewards companies and industries making us feel that way.
Here’s how.
Advertisers have learned to manipulate our emotional systems, often better than we can ourselves. Once they know how to prompt craving, they can sell you something to stop it. Entrepreneurs and product developers won’t say the following is their strategy, but it amounts to it.
They look for emotions we feel, the stronger the more effective. Then they think of how they can excite it, then satisfy it. For example, the travel industry learns to create craving for adventure through advertising, then sells you trips to satisfy it. It doesn’t matter if they deliver. Most trips aren’t that adventurous. They only care that you buy the ticket. They also don’t care that they create a population craving adventure.
Stronger emotions work more effectively so they’ll seek them out. We care about family more than adventure, so they’ll create craving to spend time with family. It doesn’t matter if they deliver. Most visits don’t result in much quality time. They only care that you buy the ticket. They also don’t care that they create a population craving family.
The result: a population craving all the time, never satisfied, with more emotions triggered and unsatisfied all the time.
In my experience, knowing the pattern helps decrease it. So does avoiding advertising media.
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