Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction • Hacker News Board

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#301

Post by teekert » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 7:02 AM UTC

AdmiralGinge wrote: post #170

teekert wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we can just create a lower underclass that we make too stupid to care for growth by subjecting them to alcohol during pregnancy and provide them with drugs that will simply allow them to be content by being.

In all seriousness, Brave New World is an excellent book. It's quite startling how much Huxley got right (and also what he got wrong, instead of soma we actually got the complete opposite with an international version of American prohibition). The general premise that it's easier to keep the population ignorant by barraging us with endless trivial rubbish than than 1984-style authoritarian "Ministries of Truth" is sp…

True but I always see TV, social networks, 9gag and tiktok like apps as soma. I take a gramme and only am.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by bsanr2 » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 7:20 AM UTC

wrkronmiller wrote: post #222

bsanr2 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't I know the answer is that difficult. 1) Prime Directive: don't introduce knowledge that will make someone's life harder or more complicated if you don't have to. 2) If they have the means to get that knowledge, you're now obligated to fill in the disparity between your quality of life, such that they can be at least as happy as you are.

This way of thinking is founded upon the notion that blissful ignorance is something societies should strive towards. Without unfulfilled desires, there is no room for self-actualization. See: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

This is less about what one should want for oneself than what one owes others whose lives they are disrupting with their presence. If you take someone's innocence, you have a moral obligation to their mental well-being.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by ollifi » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 7:24 AM UTC

asdff wrote: post #274

dibujaron wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Advertising doesn't work on me" is a lie that nearly everyone tells themselves. Advertisers love this. Ads rarely makes anyone rush out to go buy x out of the blue, but if someone is choosing between x product and y product, they're much more likely to pick x if has been advertised to them before. The substance of the ad is almost irrelevant; just because they've heard the name of x repeatedly before, they're much m…

I think there is a segment of the population that aren't consumers in the traditional sense. For instance, my computer is an 8 year old macbook, and my phone is a 4 year old iphone. My headphones are 5 years old with a wire, and will be just as good at producing sound 50 years from now. I'm not pining for an upgrade in any of these cases. When I needed more performance for my use cases, I bought the cheapest 8gb stic…

I like your post and think this is common attitude towards consumption among some techies, but I find it interesting that laptop brand still gets mentioned.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by sifar » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 8:48 AM UTC

taurath wrote: post #141

tartoran wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally would feel quite ashamed to have the latest IPhone, I'd feel that I'd fallen prey to apple's marketing. I live pretty well with a 5 year old SE. For the same reason I refuse to wear visibly branded clothes and am not ashamed to buy some used items. Living frugally by choice gets you back some freedoms.

Certainly, but you're also a product of an environment which values that sort of self-expression. If every time you went and hung out with your friends they shamed you, saying you look homeless, you might think differently. Its certainly a sign of maturity to not really care about those things, but depending on your life trajectory different values will hit. And clearly, a lot of people value a new iphone. OTOH - its…

>> If every time you went and hung out with your friends they shamed you, saying you look homeless, you might think differently

Then you need to change your friends.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by sifar » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 9:05 AM UTC

nickelcitymario wrote: post #206

kaibee wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How should they be funded instead? > I assure you their editorial departments would be overjoyed if you've discovered a new business model that works without advertising. A radical take: not all businesses currently funded by advertisement should exist. A less radical take: if the audience feels that CNN/Fox/MSNBC provide a valuable service to them, they will be willing to pay for it directly. If "the people" feel…

So in an American context... NPR and PBS exclusively then? Because people have proven for quite a long time that they are not willing to foot the bill. (I'm from Canada so our equivalent would be CBC and TVO.) My guess is that if advertising was banned, the news media would become even more reliant on billionaires to keep them going, and I can't imagine that's healthy for a democracy. I know advertisers have impacted…

So you are replacing state benevolence with the advertising industry's benevolence :).

If the news/media organizations cannot survive and profit without either help, then shouldn't they be allowed to wither ? Instead of imposing this garbage on everyone, young ones included. Or do we consider them an essential industry now ?

BTW, that news is important is also a "need" created by advertising, so that, .... they can show more ads :).

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by taurath » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 9:07 AM UTC

tartoran wrote: post #293

taurath wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My new one lasts 2x as long before charging and I can take beautiful photos that aren't grainy at all like the last one. Its absolutely worth the cost for me!

It really depends on the type of upgrade. Of course if you have a really old phone it may be worth upgrading, but keeping up with the latest is a waste of money and energy.

True. I only truly got rid of mine because I was on the 2nd screen and 3rd battery, and I was tired of having to charge it so often.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by 6510 » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 9:17 AM UTC

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #79

throwawaymath wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That raises profound and fascinating philosophical questions about the nature of knowledge and happiness. I wonder how many of those people would choose to forego the knowledge of what they don't have if it meant they would be happy again. On the other hand, is that even a meaningful question to ask, given it's not possible? Which of course leads to the ethical question: is it right for people to live in ignorance if…

> is it right for people to live in ignorance if it makes them happy, it it's not their choice? I wouldn't pretend to answer if it is "right" (what does it even mean), but a lot of people already do live in ignorance. Maybe not in the straight way of ignorance of not being able to recollect some information, but certainly in terms of assigning certain labels and judgements to it. So many people watch a TV with someon…

We all live in ignorance. Our most epic skill is to work with incomplete information. We use to praise people for being able to do arithmetic in their head or memorize large amounts of information. The computers showed that those abilities are only challenging because we lack the "design" for it.

Advertisement, like Instagram or facebook is tailored to give us the impressions the Joneses are doing much better for themselves. Some of this is true, some is designed to tap into this emotion.

I actually woke up 30 min ago iterating over all the things I didn't get in life that most other people had in abundance. It's not the first time I pondered that. After the excuses you mention above I always come back to a thought I had when I was I think 6 years old:

Other peoples lives, their expectations and their opinions are not really all that interesting or important. They could be if they put minimal effort into creating or evolving them. In stead they just copy this stuff from the next guy without review - then dedicate their lives to living up to them.

I consider myself extremely privileged to escape from that formula. I've never written it down before but happiness now starts with having oxygen to breath, then comes having water to drink, food and a place to sleep share the 3rd spot, 4th is having the mind set to think about something, 5th is a sense of safety and the privilege to implement the thoughts, 6th is to be able to share the thoughts and brainstorm, 7th is to have good people in my life, 8th is to be able to pay my bills, 9th a decent set of garments etc

Having what other people are having is still on the list some place but to have 1-4 makes for a fantastic life. 5 includes health and fitness. The rest is really just nonsense by comparison.

What I'm trying to say is that satisfaction is overrated. You get only so much of it, trying to optimize for it just diminishes it.

> the survey question “How satisfied are you with your life?”

Not satisfied? Well good! Time to accomplish something!

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by Nasrudith » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 1:20 PM UTC

kerkeslager wrote: post #177

cm2012 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should strive to take away the option of knowledge from the poor, so they can be happy with their place in society.

Advertising doesn't contain knowledge. It's like a stopped clock: even when it's correct, you don't know it's correct, because most of the time it's not correct. And more critically, even when it is correct, it's not the complete story. I've never seen an ad that admits that their competitor's product is cheaper, or better. In fact, most ads don't even want you to know their competitor exists. So let's not pretend ad…

It is wrong to say that it doesn't contain any knowledge even if it is not the primary intent.

Incomplete and often deliberately misleading but there are actual gains to it. If you were in Cuba and saw an ad for the zero to sixty time of a mini-van which emphasised cargo space that was better than a hotrod.

Pretty much any interaction with reality even if pure lies can contain gleamable knowledge from analysis even if it is "they expect us to believe this crap".

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by Nasrudith » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 1:32 PM UTC

yibg wrote: post #275

slumdev wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These stories are too common. I would guess that the median* wage on HN is probably around 5x what your brother-in-law makes. And I would also guess that many of us are perfectly content with old phones, old cars, and generally reduced consumption. Hell, I buy clothes at thrift/resale shops when I find something nice that fits. What are people of means (relatively) seeing? Is it because we have more leisure time and…

I make FAANG salary and I bought my car used for $6k. My previous car I bought used for $7k and drove for 8 years. Not sure if I’m filtering out ads more (haven’t had a TV for over a decade), or the tech crowd tend to be more logical. But for me personally I just don’t care about what other people think, I tend to focus on utility. But then again I don’t think twice about spending $200 on a really nice meal, so maybe…

I think it is a tech social circle thing and a tendency to go within their own constraints and less likely to be swayed into "keeping up with the Joneses" - I recall some rankings that had engineers as one of the least likely occupations to go bankrupt - and that included doctors, lawyers, and accountants.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Post by Nasrudith » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 1:45 PM UTC

ollifi wrote: post #303

asdff wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a segment of the population that aren't consumers in the traditional sense. For instance, my computer is an 8 year old macbook, and my phone is a 4 year old iphone. My headphones are 5 years old with a wire, and will be just as good at producing sound 50 years from now. I'm not pining for an upgrade in any of these cases. When I needed more performance for my use cases, I bought the cheapest 8gb stic…

I like your post and think this is common attitude towards consumption among some techies, but I find it interesting that laptop brand still gets mentioned.

Well it is information significant to compatibility so it actually has functional value to know. Unlike clothes brands - it isn't like if you (deliberately mangling brand associations to be nonsensical) wear Victoria's Secret Pants with a Stetson Jacket they will not work or catch on fire due to incompatability.