WHEN the word innocently came up during one chat time with a friend, little did we know that it would eventually become the jumping board to many minutes of testimonies on how suckered we have all become. No doubt about it, if we didn’t watch out, that floating mass of grey matter between our ears might as well turn into useless pulp.
After customarily starting with how-are-yous and whatever-happened-tos, our conversation slowly graduated to our current stay-at-home preferences and the range of serial (rhymes with cereal) flicks we both liked to watch or binge on in Netflix.
Counting-off with the old ones like GOT (and now its prequel), to her latest Korean specials with forty episodes, we noticed that on the subject of drinks alone, there would subconsciously arise in us, the growing impulse to crave for whatever the characters were fond of indulging in during the show. On her end, she hinted that the sudden increase in the sale of Soju, the Korean beverage must have been inspired by watching the Korean flicks on TV. Agreeing to that, I added that indeed, watching game of thrones had me wanting to drink red wine on many occasions.
Without a doubt, we or the majority of us instinctively emulate what we see on the widescreen or on TV. I reminded her of the sudden rage and return of the 50s Converse’ Chuck Taylor signature shoes once Will Smith wore it on I Robot. At this, our topic graduated into shoes, the latest on Asics and so on. Needless to say, we laughed at how all these have even turned the rest of us into serious researchers, as we eagerly studied the specifications and other details of any shoe or show that we want.
In all, we should also realize that drinks and shoes or clothe styles are just the tip of the ice cream. For one, the biggest trap of all lies in our watching and reading whatever they throw at us. By “they”, I don’t merely point at any of the first-world marketing giants who channel their wares through entertainment and media. We’ve our own custom-made versions right here who create our needs for us. The second point in all this is that they are available 24-7. Subliminally or not, it is spoon-fed to all who have access to its outlets, be it TV, movie and down to the simple tabloid.
How to be free of our consumerist jail cell? I remember a Johnny Depp movie where he turned into a sci-fi villain who could physically enter and dominate the internet. The only option then was to crash the net and deny him that in order to kill him. For us, how about limiting our usage for a while. Read a book, travel, work the garden or better yet, read a book. At the end of our chat, I closed with a bummer. I said we never had it so good, at least we have a choice while so many out there…
