[dropcap style=”simple” size=”5″]A[/dropcap]s a society, media and advertisements seem to have taught Americans that their lives can always be better, whether that is a newer model of car, the latest iPhone, the biggest house, or the next top-of-the-line clothing trends. People around us always have the need for more things like the biggest TV on the market and unneeded kitchen gadgets to accommodate their needs, and industries and corporations make it easy for us. They are constantly re-imagining, re-innovating and reproducing things to meet our high standards of living.

When going about our daily lives, industries see us as targets for potential business. They throw advertisements at us and track us down while everyone scrolls through social media, listens to the radio, watches television or even drives down the road. They are always willing us to buy something at every point in our day. Sometimes even if I think I’m ignoring them, subconsciously I will make a mental note about that product. So if I am shopping for shoes, unsure of which brand to choose, and earlier I saw a Nike commercial, I might pick that brand over another just because I had seen the ad. When people buy merchandise and wear it they are only buying into the company. I am only being used by the company as another form of marketing their name, and nailing their brand into people’s heads.

Advertisements are meant to draw people in in and make customers aware of their product, according to entrepreneur.com. Their sole purpose is to convince consumers that their life will be better with a certain product. Media continuously show ads during almost every aspect of our lives, telling people they need a product to improve something in their lives. Because of this, I feel people conclude that their lives are incomplete. Ads put the idea into our heads that, since our lives have something missing from them and a company happens to be merchandising the product to ‘find’ the missing piece in our life, they are selling us the belief that happiness and enjoyment can be bought. As a result, I feel we measure the significance of our lives on how much ‘stuff’ we own and often rank our peers in social classes such as rich, middle-class and poor based on their possessions.
We also obtain things to prove ourselves. Most of the time, I think more highly of a businessman in a suit and tie than in a cheap t-shirt and old jeans, never mind what level of expertise they have. One way I tend to judge people is based on their appearance, and I infer that one is better than the other because of what they have. Everyone wants to ‘fit in’ and be respected, rather than recognize who they are and what they have.
People seem to increasingly confuse happiness with wealth, but a study released by a psychologist from the University of Illinois concluded that extra money does not increase happiness. Money can bring many things that might give the illusion of happiness, but when I experienced what it felt like to truly be happy, I realized the second-hand joy I felt with what money gave me is not real, it is just a side effect of obtaining something new. This is another reason why people are always demanding more. Once I’ve had something for a while and the newness and discovery has been replaced with familiarity, I get bored with what was exciting before and want something to replace that stimulation.
This overload of advertisements overshadows the real enjoyments in life, and the over the top products make simple things in life seem insignificant and boring. When was the last time you looked up at the sky and appreciated it for what it was? For example, Google tells us that if you wear their new product of ‘Google Glass’, then look up at the sky, it will be a whole new experience. Thus, we give up on enjoying the sky as it is because we believe the view won’t reach its full potential without the aid of ‘Google Glasses’.

 In order to rid ourselves of this brainwashing through advertisements, we need to be level headed, clear-minded and not allow ourselves to be clouded by others’ perception of us based on our possessions and the social classes they have ranked us.