Musings -Product Advertising and Human Mentality

Humans are constantly being bombarded by advertising. They're told that they need to buy this or that product, but the products advertised aren't necessities; they're not a means of survival. Some people will argue that these products improve one's quality of life, but what does 'quality of life' really mean? How do you quantify it?

Some people use money as a way to measure value, but that's not really the correct way. Money may make life easier or more pleasant in some ways, but it doesn't necessarily improve one's quality of life. For example: If I had $100 million dollars and used most of it to buy a bunch of cars (which would be fun for about 15 minutes), then I'd end up having nothing left over. So what is my 'quality' at that point? It's pretty much 0.

Now imagine a person who has very little money, but he or she lives with a lot of friends and family. Every day they're surrounded by people that love them, and every day they spend time doing things that make them happy. This can be considered 'quality' living.

What I'm trying to say is, you don't need a lot of money or even the 'right' stuff in order to have a high quality of life. Just surround yourself with people and things that make you happy.

When it comes to advertising, humans have a choice: They can either be influenced by the ads that try to get them to buy products, or they can resist the influence and go on living their lives in whatever way makes them happy.

Humans seem to have developed this mentality that they need to be told what's right and wrong. It's kind of pathetic, really.