he advertisers

BEING HUMAN MEANS A SIMPLE LIFE WITH GOOD FAITH AND ACTION

Meanwhile, the advertisers’ goal is to get you

to buy products.

This is obvious enough; the

insidious part is that if you’re generally content

with your life, you won’t feel compelled to buy

much. To get you to buy, advertisers

intentionally do everything they can to

convince you that something is missing in your

life, and if you were just prettier, had whiter

teeth, used a different laundry detergent, or

whatever, then people would like you better.

They try to convince you that something is

wrong in your life now, but if you buy their

product, it will fix it, and then you’ll be happy.

They get you coming and going: they tell you

you’re inadequate and shouldn’t be happy, and

then they give you a solution that will never

make you happy. The more you watch or

listen, the harder it is to be happy. These

messages make a difference, so protect

yourself from them as much as you can. Use

an ad blocker on your web browser. If you

listen to commercial radio, switch stations

when the commercials come on. If you watch

tv, at least mute the commercials, or better,

watch a recording and skip past them. Better

still, stop watching tv. Most of the shows are

also designed to make you unhappy so you’ll

buy more of the advertisers’ products.

If this all sounds too hard, just try it for a week

and see if you feel more peaceful and content.

It’s much easier to be happy without all those

negative messages