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Here are just a few random thoughts related to the topic, at least I hope so.
I don’t worry about the affect of advertising on adults. We’re all self-conscious in one way or another, and if you can’t spend some time on internal self-development, but would rather nip down to the bar for a drink with friends, then I couldn’t care less about the media exploiting you. I am, however, worried about kids in general.
If my kid will see a cartoon, then should I explain to him that the stuff inside the TV is not real, but drawn by people? Should I go into the tedious details of fast flashing pictures that, in the end, turn out to be a moving on-screen character? Should I go and tell the kid that he wants a toy purely because somebody is earning money of this? Surely, this seems a tedious task. Then again, up until three years or so ago, I had no clue about the mechanics that govern the world around. I had no clue, because nobody really explained these things to me. I was an easy target for any kind of media advertising, because I had no idea that the media was out there to sell me stuff I didn’t really need. So, back to the point, if I went ahead, and was explaining each and every of these things in detail to my child as it would be growing up, even if it would be a tedious task, would I have a chance of raising a person completely free of the media/cultural images superimposed-on-my-thoughts burden? Would a person like that want to actually live?
Ah, questions, questions, questions.
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