y1.
Know your limits
We have only so much time and so much money.
We live in a world of constant stimulation of our wants
and desires. There's more "goods" out there than we can possibly have.
Thus, we need a keen awareness of our own limits, and the goals
of persuaders, and the potential conflicts.
Time Limits.
For most students, the two areas with the most problems with time
limit are likely to be media time (including
TV, radios, iPods, CDs, DVDs) and work time.
Media time. Most
American homes with pre-schoolers have the TV on 7.5 hours a day. Older
kids watch a little less. Teen agers tend to spend more time listening to
music on the radio and online. Try
this: for a week, keep
a Media Log of your own habits, simply to get an accurate
record for yourself about how many hours TV is on in your house (even if
you're not giving it full attention), how many hours of music (even background
music you hear), and how much time you spend online, IM, on a phone, or
with something plugged into your ears.
You may claim that such music "helps" you study, or screens out
other things. But, such a simple descriptive accounting of
your own reality is useful to recognize the choices you make. Recognize
also that such multi-tasking may not be the best way for you
to do careful work: silence and solitude are often
needed to focus attention.
Work time. For
most middle-class American teen-agers, jobs are used to provide "discretionary
income" for spending money, for non-essentials, for luxuries
(stylish clothes, fads and fashions), or for long-term car and insurance payments.
Obviously, some students must work in order to provide basics for themselves
and their family. But, most teen-agers work for money to spend on
entertainments, CDs, or to support a car.
Advertisers know that
some students are hedonists, working for the present, others are achievers,
working for the future. It's your choice how you spend your time. But, experienced
teachers say that, in the long run, students will gain more from giving
their time and attention to homework (or to sports or hobbies) rather than
from a part-time job earning discretionary spending money.
For college freshmen,
their biggest academic problem is going to be time-management.
Failure rates are high in freshman year, primarily because of poor time planning
and procrastination. Without external controls (from parents or school), students
away from home often many spend too much time on outside work and entertainments,
too little on schoolwork. Self-discipline is needed. Good guides are available
(online, in books), but you need to apply the principles.
Money Limits
Kids are naturally dependent and self-centered. Ideally, as they mature, they
learn to become independent, to become responsible, and to have more concern
and empathy for others. Two fairly recent developments
relating to money limits deserve attention here: one, within the individual
(as a "spoiled child");
the other, in the wider society, the increasing use of credit
cards.
Spoiled Child. We used
to think that "being spoiled" in terms of great inherited
wealth, a few rich kids ("born with a silver spoon in the mouth").
But, as middle-class affluence increased during the past generation,
there's also been a sense of rising entitlements
among middle-class children. Growing up in this new situation of affluence,
they often feel that they deserve it, that they are entitled to
it.
Often a vicious cycle, two parents need to work in order just
to keep up with the basics. To compensate for their absence, they often indulge
the increasing desires (i.e. non-essentials) of their dependents. The
kids, in turn, are often socially dependent on their peers (that desire
to belong, to be wanted or admired by others). It's this
peer pressure which advertisers can greatly influence.
Many writers point out the resulting personal
problems ( family stress, debt cycle) caused by dependents being "prematurely
affluent" -- having a lot of such discretionary spending
money available to them during childhood and adolescence.
Later, after finishing school, as young adults, they become "downwardly
mobile" because they are unable to support themselves at the same level.
Unable to afford housing, they won't "leave the nest" of their parents'
home, or, they may leave temporarily (often to occupy college rooms), then return
("boomerangs") as adult dependents who want both an "independent
lifestyle" (car, friends) while still depending on the parents for shelter
and basics.
Credit Cards blur limits.
Other Limits
Although time and money are the most common limits we consider
in relation to advertising, other limits (physical and
mental) are common. If you have severe physical disabilities, it's going
to very hard or impossible to do everything you want. If you limited mental
abilities, you face difficult odds.
As the long-enduring British philosopher, Sir Mick Jagger,
OBE, once said: "You can't always get what
you want." In fact, he once claimed, about himself:
" I can't get no satisfaction."
Who, then, is to decide our limits? The state? The system?
The family? The individual?
The state? Sometimes, in crisis situations (war, disasters)
or severe shortages (famine, drought, energy), nations will impose limits, such
as rationing.
The system? A capitalist economic system can impose
limits upon us simply by raising prices, or by restricting credit.
The family? Many domestic arguments occur over limits,
often the dependents want less limits put on them. Usually, both sides feel
they suffer injustice.
The individual? There's always the tension between knowing
your limits (resignation or acceptance?) and striving for more (triumph or frustration?)
y2.
Know your own priorities and values.
Advertisers want you to make their
product your priority, to spend your limited money or time with
them, rather than with the unlimited number of other things competing
for your time and money.
Priorities change with
your age (young kids, teenagers, newly weds, parents, aged) and with your situation
(such as sickness or health, employed or jobless.)
Be aware also that your priorities often
shift during the sales transaction. You may start out to buy clothes
or a car because it's "on sale," but then shift your priority and
buy something more expensive because of a different reason. It's your choice.
Be more aware of both the benefits and the disadvantages.
Our priorities can be changed both by deception and self-deception.
If the seller lures you into this, it's
called "bait and switch." However, buyers
are also prone to "second thoughts," to buying something
for one reason, then having "buyer's remorse" about it.
Ads equate acquisition with achievement, buying with doing.
It's a lot easier to "go shopping" than to do something.
Your priorities ultimately depend upon your ethical values.
y3.
Know your own needs and wants.
Our needs are few. Our wants are many. From ancient philosophers
to modern psychologists, many people have tried to identify common human needs
and wants. This website, in discussing the audience-centered
strategy of advertisers, presents some two dozen which can be usefully
labeled and grouped together as:
Our basic needs (Food, Activity,
Surroundings, Sex, Health, Security, Economy)
Our needs for certitude, or approval
from outside sources, (Religion,
Science, "Best People," "Most People," "Average People")
Our needs for space
or territory (Neighborhood, Nation, Nature)
Our needs for belonging
(Intimacy, Family, Groups)
Our "growth"
needs (Esteem, Play, Generosity, Curiosity, Creativity, Success
What criteria can we use to set limits on our
many desires?
At one extreme of this ethical question, the hedonist might argue for no
limits; at the other extreme, the ascetic might argue for
austere limits.
Most people, however, are likely to agree in principle with
the general goal of voluntary
moderation, but are likely to disagree about where is this "middle
ground" for different people in different situations.
If you agree to the concepts of a more simple living, be aware
of the great imbalance in our culture: the whole entertainment industry (TV,
radio, movies, sports) is primarily a vehicle for advertising products.
Be aware also of the "peer pressure" which comes from our natural
desire for a sense of "belonging" to a group, to be popular or esteemed:
whether it's the teen-ager wearing the same brand of shoes or clothing; or the
twenty-something wanting a car or SUV with "status."
Economists analyzing why some rich adults would pay $100,000
for a status wristwatch instead of a $50 watch which does the same job note
that this is an example of vanity driven wasteful
spending: "But paying more than the market rate is just one form of
wasteful spending. Another, often far more important, form is to pay a fair
price for something that serves little purpose."
Even if you don't agree with the idea of more simple
living, then be careful to protect yourself from overspending, from getting
into a debt-cycle, from false illusions of "buying happiness," and
from the long-term "hidden harms" caused by cigarettes, alcohol, and
a junk food diet.
It's your choice. Be more aware of both the benefits and the
harmful consequences.
You need to identify
your own limits, priorities, values, needs and wants.
For realistic straight talk about limits, see Marshall Brain, The
Teenager's Guide to the Real World (or his
website).
For idealistic exhortation about "Simple Living" see:
www.seedsofsimplicity.org
You need
to identify your own limits, priorities, values, needs and wants.