Free media takes a toll on your personal finances, so you ultimately pay the price for being entertained
For practical purposes, the mass media, such as radio and television, are a cost investment for those who care to tune in to what is offered. Even if you don’t own a TV or radio, it’s hard to escape the constant chatter and flashy images in restaurants, waiting rooms, lounges, and even airport gates. With all the free media we are bombarded with on a daily basis, one might wonder who is paying for it. After all, the people who organize the news, talk shows, and other sources of “information and entertainment” should be paid, it’s their job, and they’re paid very well.
The simple answer is the country of the audience The Tab, if only indirectly. The media make their money from advertisers who make their money from the providers of products and services, who in turn make their money from sales made by the viewers, listeners and readers of the media who are influenced by the ad campaigns. This is how the media can have the opposite effect on personal finances across a wide spectrum of audiences. Let me show you how, so you can see why popular media in general isn’t good for your Personal Financial Outlook.
Advertisers know the demographics of readers, listeners and viewers. It is both an art and a science. Commercial advertising in the mass media is designed to target specific audiences by age, gender, income, culture, and interest. Billions of dollars are spent on advertising each year to stimulate discretionary spending among audience members. And, it works so well. If it were not so, it would not exist.
Honest advertising works, we need to understand how it works on us – those who indirectly pay for it – so that we are better prepared to combat its opposite effect on our personal finances. Advertising is designed to force us to spend money to alleviate the dissatisfaction with our lives that is generated when we are or are ready for advertising. To understand this, we need to see what advertising tells us. Very often, we are told and shown that we can:
- be in fashion
- smell better
- live a happier life
- enjoy more popularity
- look better
- Join the fun
- get out of trouble
- make our life easier
- be more accepted by others
- improve our comfort level
- Cure Our Olys
- have more self-satisfaction
Wow, that’s a great list. WOULD IT NOT BE AMAZING if we could actually do All Those Things? Those who advertise products and services expect you to part with money in an attempt to achieve one or more of what they promote. The key is that they play with a very strong instinct that we humans have: hope. It is a basic hope that tomorrow will be better than today. One of the main impulses of advertising is to promote products and services as part of the hope for a better tomorrow.
So how do we guard against reckless spending that is encouraged by those who deliberately try to convince us that we are dissatisfied with our lives and need to spend money to fix the “problem” that has been brought to our attention? I have some suggestions that I trust you will implement.
1. Reduce the frequency and duration of your exposure to popular media. Better yet, refuse to participate in the information culture we have created, turn your back on watching others and schools, and do something that invests in yourself. How much time do you suppose the average successful entrepreneur spends in front of the television each day?
2. Turn off the television or radio, change the channel, mute the sound, leave the room, or simply engage in another activity when advertising is displayed.
3. Recognize the difference between what you need and what you want, and stay focused on your needs, things that are essential in your life, regardless of what advertisers say are nice to have. If you’re not taking care of your needs, there’s no hope for a better tomorrow, no matter what purchase you may make.
4. Make a deliberate focus on being achievement oriented, rather than entertainment oriented. That means you spend time thinking and planning important things in your life instead of paying attention to the world of information and entertainment. Every HOUR YOU DON’T SPEND In Front Of “The Subway” Means ANOTHER HOUR YOU CAN SPEND ACHIEVING SCEES BY YOURSELF.
5. Move your television to an area of the home that is not a central focus of family activities.
The media in America have a tremendous influence on how we see the world. And, media advertising heavily influences how we spend our discretionary income and what we do with free time that might otherwise be productive in Nature. Be someone who is too busy doing their thing and too satisfied with it to just sit and watch others. They are the observers advertisers count on to be convinced that their lives need something extra to be more fulfilling. If you’re out there creating a great life for yourself instead of watching others, you’ll rarely feel dissatisfied, and you’ll have the best reason in the world to hope for a better tomorrow: simply because you’ll be the one. for this to happen.