thedadblog

The world is conspiring against you.

Powerful secretive societies have invested billions (trillions?) of dollars in developing technologies and techniques to control your behavior.

They are all trying to get you to throw your money away.

And on average, it works.

So, one of the earliest lessons we teach our kids (besides the anatomically correct words for anus, vulva, and penis) is “Advertisements are trying to get you throw your money away.”

This is our actively repeated mantra, as we move through the world as a family.

When there's an advertisement on the radio we start saying “LA LA LA LA LA LA we won't through our money away!”

When the they're listening to has a crossover episode we say “they're trying to trick you in to throwing your money away!”

And that's one of the big reasons we don't have a TV. We do have a screen with a Chromecast, so they can watch shows and movies, but we try our hardest to not allow advertisements.

Why the F does Netflix not allow me to turn off the teaser promos for shows when casting from my phone to the screen. Why the F does my projector running Android not give me the ability to turn off teasers for shows??? We've ceded control over our desire to third parties

When our kids do see the big teaser on the screen with us there, we remind them “you're not allowed to watch that show, they're trying to trick you into wanting to watch it.”

When there's product placement in a movie, we say “I'll never buy an Audi now, because you're trying to trick me into wanting one.”

So hopefully, through this one little act of consumer rebellion, we are creating more conscious consumers. Consumers of media, and consumers of products.

And I've got a feeling there are positive knock on effects.

It is creating a culture of critical media consumption, making them more willing to question their entertainment, and eventually news sources.

I have a feeling rejecting advertisements will make my kids happier too. So many advertisements are based on creating a feeling of inadequacy in the viewer. “You're not beautiful enough.” “You don't travel enough” “You deserve a nicer car (cough cough crushing debt).” While I know those messages get in your brain as soon as you hear them (even if you know they are tricking you), I have to hope that talking back to them, literally, is helping our kids inner voices grow the ability to talk back to negative self talk in general.

And lastly I hope that this act of self-determinism, of positive assertion of autonomy of thought against mysterious corporations, will lay the groundwork for standing up for their own preferences, and tastes, and comfort level as they're increasingly faced with peer pressure.

Perhaps they'll be more likely to wear the clothing that makes them feel good, and less likely to make some naughty choice, because they can say “you're just trying to trick me” to their peers when they need to.

Phew, that was a long post that got me all riled up. When I'm riled up, I like to relax with a nice cold Brew Dr. Kombucha. I think I'll go get one now. I think it also helps get rid of my acne.