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Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

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Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#111
post #72
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, what do you think is the distinction? The greatest contributor to flourishing capitalism is strong consumerism. And the biggest driver of the consumerist mind is capitalist manipulation. They feed off of each other, and are so intertwined that it's hardly useful to refer to one without acknowledging that it comes with the other.

>Interesting, what do you think is the distinction? The greatest contributor to flourishing capitalism is strong consumerism. And the biggest driver of the consumerist mind is capitalist manipulation. They feed off of each other, and are so intertwined that it's hardly useful to refer to one without acknowledging that it comes with the other. It would be disingenuous to pretend the two aren't highly interrelated, but…

While your distinction about building a better mousetrap is true - the corporation building a better mousetrap needs more money to put into R&D and it can get more only if it is either marketing itself to investors (consumers in this scenario?) or gaining a larger market share by promoting themselves.

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#112
post #13

I'm with Bill Hicks when it comes to advertising and marketing. I adblock. I pirate. I don't use Facebook or other social networking sites. I don't want advertising in my life. It's propaganda. It shits in your head. If there's anybody reading this who works in those industries: you thought Generation X was cynical?

shouldnt be afraid of information friend, cant hurt you. closing yourself off is bad for you

Separating signal from noise is work. Dealing with new information is not costless, and there comes a point when closing yourself off is probably the best option.

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Hicks never figured out the meaning of life. The entire purpose of life is to market. You get up in the morning and brush your teeth so that you're more marketable than the slob that doesn't. Everything you do can be traced back to marketing. The more people understand that, the better off they will be at handling life.

As Nassim Taleb says, "the map is not the territory", just because you can say a lot of things are "kind of like a market", it does not, in any way, means that everything is a market, for example, higiene exists before market, nature exists before market, just because you can draw parallels it doesn't mean you've figured everything out. In the age of machines people wanted to think as if everything was like a machine…

Taleb may have repeated it, but the expression "the map is not the territory"[1] first appeared decades earlier in a paper by Alfred Korzybski[2], developer of the self-improvement movement known as general semantics[3].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#114
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Hicks never figured out the meaning of life. The entire purpose of life is to market. You get up in the morning and brush your teeth so that you're more marketable than the slob that doesn't. Everything you do can be traced back to marketing. The more people understand that, the better off they will be at handling life.

The purpose is not being marketed, is having sex. You market yourself so you can have better sex. At least that's what some people say, like when they claim Zuckerberg started The Facebook so people could get easily laid. I've also had interesting conversations saying the purpose is not sex but power. We do stuff the way we do because that might get us more power. Sociology is really interesting.

“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.”

― Oscar Wilde

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#115
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic that you literally threw an ad right in the parent's face through this simple comment.

That's not an ad, that's genuine interaction. The poster is not an actor(or someone trying to act a role), not an algorythm, not a corporation, not a marketer or salesperson. We must learn to discern between stuff if we want to consider ourselves "real-worlders" or whatever. If you get the concepts mixed up in your mind then your discernment gets distorted and you start conflating what's authentic and what's artifici…

> That's not an ad, that's genuine interaction.

Well... Hopefully :-/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z696bTiP8Ro

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#116

My wife and I were just talking about this today, coincidentally. She follows a few people around the world who are artists or collectors on IG. She pointed out to me that when she started following some of them more than a year ago, they had a few hundred followers, and were posting general stuff, but which all felt heartfelt and 'in the moment'. I think 'genuine' was the word my wife used. Kids doing silly things.…

I have nothing against someone doing promotional work to earn money to live, but I do have a problem with people portraying a totally fake and unrealistic life as a reality.

They are simply responding to what people want to see. If people wanted to see real life then that's what people would give them.

People want inspiration and to feel like they are associating (by liking and commenting) with people they aspire to be like. That's nothing new, that's basic human behavior.

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Hicks never figured out the meaning of life. The entire purpose of life is to market. You get up in the morning and brush your teeth so that you're more marketable than the slob that doesn't. Everything you do can be traced back to marketing. The more people understand that, the better off they will be at handling life.

I brush my teeth so that they last longer and I can chew food longer and thus stay alive longer, marketing only comes into it for people in marketing.

You want to stay alive longer so that you can have a positive influence in the lives of the people around you - your family, your friends. It's well documented that "happiness" comes from positive interactions with other people.

In fact you are posting here because you seek to influence, which is great! That's what we're here for.

Desire to influence = Marketing.

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#118

My wife and I were just talking about this today, coincidentally. She follows a few people around the world who are artists or collectors on IG. She pointed out to me that when she started following some of them more than a year ago, they had a few hundred followers, and were posting general stuff, but which all felt heartfelt and 'in the moment'. I think 'genuine' was the word my wife used. Kids doing silly things.…

I have nothing against someone doing promotional work to earn money to live, but I do have a problem with people portraying a totally fake and unrealistic life as a reality. They are simply responding to what people want to see. If people wanted to see real life then that's what people would give them. People want inspiration and to feel like they are associating (by liking and commenting) with people they aspire to…

Is this 'celebrity culture' gone wild though? People regard other people more highly if they are 'celebrities', therefore even if the average Joe or Jane Schmoe is perceived as a 'celebrity' then they are automatically worthy of more recognition that your peers?

Does the movie, TV, music and magazine industry have something to answer for when a person is famous for just being famous, whereas people who do meaningful, life changing/saving work are just glossed over?

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#119

Was just thinking about this recently as I started following a few people. We are increasingly living in a world of fiction. Previously it was mainly fed through television. You'd grow up on television series, and as a young man/woman you'd try to be cool like them, dress like them, talk like them. You build your world view around "influential" portrayals. Nowadays, we haven't freed ourself from media controlled tele…

thanks for sharing that mystically dark video

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#120
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, what do you think is the distinction? The greatest contributor to flourishing capitalism is strong consumerism. And the biggest driver of the consumerist mind is capitalist manipulation. They feed off of each other, and are so intertwined that it's hardly useful to refer to one without acknowledging that it comes with the other.

>The greatest contributor to flourishing capitalism is strong consumerism. Not if you ask a businessman or a politician. Boosting the supply side is how you get to a robust economy according to them.

The businesses that lobby politicians to hold these positions are simply using the most powerful marketing tools at their disposal allowed under capitalism: money.
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