“Sign this petition to stop live puppies being used as shark bait”
Some people believe that the Internet will give everyone a voice they didn’t have before. Some people believe that the Internet will give everyone the vote they never had – or had, but just couldn’t be bothered to use..
Maybe it will. But so what?
If the technological debate is always framed in simplistic terms, it’s probably so that technology can be positioned as an easy solution to our problems.
Like the problem with democracy was just that too many people didn’t vote, right? Technology can fix that. Like the problem with human cruelty was that there’s wasn’t a petition we could all sign. But technology can fix that, too.
Will signing a digital petition from the comfort of my bed (where I’m writing this) reverse the damage we’ve already done to our environment? I can’t see how. Will voting from beneath the duvet cover help us transcend the limitations of our greedy, perpetual-growth politics? Show me how.
Whether or not the Internet has a positive impact on politics, the environment or human spiritual evolution remains to be seen – if we even retain the power to see it.
What I do know right now – and what every online marketer knows – is that people are irresistibly drawn to conflict, cruelty, suffering and disaster and that just means lots and lots of valuable traffic.
Think I’m being heartless and cynical?
The last petition like this I researched (‘Artist Starves Dog To Death In The Name Of Art’) turned out to be, um… not true. Overblown, good for traffic and getting pulses racing all over the world.
And this one? Well, who knows. Except that all roads in this story lead back to National Geographic and a 2005 (yes, 2005!) story about stray dogs being used as live shark bait by Renunion islanders.
Ask yourself who benefits most? The stray dogs or National Geographic?
Stop alive dogs/cats being used for shark bait.
It’s utterly HORRIBLE. Sickening. Cruel. Just plain f**cking disgusting.
There we go again.
When you’re not in control of your reactions, you’re like the shark in this story. You can’t resist the awful story of the sad puppy so you swallow it hook, line and sinker.
Who are the fishermen? Anyone who wants big traffic on their site.
If you hadn’t noticed, there are a lot of people online who want you to buy from them. They’ll use whatever you’re least able to resist to get you hooked.
The people they love most are the people who can’t stop themselves reacting powerfully to something. Doesn’t matter what it is.
Your reaction, Anonymous, tells me – as an online marketer – that I can do anything I like with you so long as I press the right buttons.
Why? Because I can predict what you’re going to do. I already know that if you are reading this, you’ll fight for your right to be unconsciously reactive.
What does that mean? It means that IF you’re reading this, you’ll come back angrily and defend your right to react in the way you did about the puppies, probably calling me a heartless b***rd in the process because I’m not joining you in your disgust and horror etc…
That’s ok. From an online marketing point of view, it just tells me (as I already knew) that your need to react (disgust, horror, shock, sadness) buries the critical faculties that COULD help you to spot that you’re being manifpulated.
It’s how advertising works.
In case you think I don’t care about puppies, I do. It’s just that I care more about people, our species and its need to develop more, not less, awareness if we’re to survive much longer.
Just read this and I wholeheartedly concur. God knows how many “causes” there are that everybody rushes to sign their name to – as if that will change anything whatsoever. No action required – just start a cause.