How companies use emotional manipulation to hook you.
As mentioned previously, marketers have discovered that to offer to fulfil a weakness is more profitable than offering to boost a strength. Think about it; if you are thriving in life already, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever ‘desperately’ need such-and-such a product to make it better. Certain social media platforms (if not all), will limit the number of posts seen in a newsfeed or status, if the user does not receive much interaction from others. You may post ten posts a day, but you will receive only one engagement in the form of a like or a comment – maybe a share. If your posts are not providing your friends, followers, or general public with information that somehow promotes an agenda that the site is involved with, the chances of your posts being seen become less. An example would be a post that states, ‘Our government is fraudulent – we must fight them!’ Because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of users that are feeling despondent in these times, many of them will jump at the opportunity for a good rant. In truth, it seems that many individuals think that maintaining power through aggression will keep them strong and in control. Unfortunately, being angry all the time leads to various illnesses, mental disorders, and eventually a lonely life, because not everyone likes grumpy people. And so, offering a post that will get many engagements and, in turn, keep people glued to the specific social media site for longer, as they wait to see other arguments that come through in the comments (the prurient interest theory), is better for the site than offering a post about the handmade soaps that you sell from home. If you post three inflammatory posts and seven arbitrary posts, you’ll find the inflammatory ones get fed into your friends’ newsfeeds, while the others receive little to no attention because they do not arouse strong enough emotion within other viewers, to spur those viewers into spending longer on the site or purchasing a product. But it is not just the social media sites that have trained their bots to do this. People using social media sites to sell their products, or boost the agenda of an organization they work for, will do the same. An example from an organization could be, ‘How could you let this puppy die – shame on you!’ In a post like this, they have hit you right in your guilt spot. But you don’t want to feel guilty; you don’t want anything to be ‘your fault’, so you engage with a sad emoji or even a comment telling them and others how you donated $10 to their cause, because that should at least get you off the guilty list. It’s that simple. The manipulators are greedy and have no problem with harping on your weakened emotions for a dollar. The hackers, on the other hand, are playing with your naiveties and vulnerabilities. You receive a private message saying you have won such-and-such a competition, just because your name starts with a certain letter! Better still, some act like retired navy officers with PTSD looking for love; they recently had an operation and can’t pay the bill – will you please help them. Or they’ll ask you to ‘please share this post of a young child dying of cancer’. What you did not know was that through sharing that post, you’ve activated malware in your own account that will find it’s way into your and your friends’ details, and steal your information.
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