After finishing an excerpt from Douglas Rushkoff''s "Coercion, " I am amazed at how well this author got his point across. He talks about how advertisers and stores use techniques developed by psychologist to lure us in and buy their products, or more than what we came to the store to purchase. He continues telling us his sad story about how his book was used for the opposite purpose he intended it. All the while using the same techniques that the advertisers would use for their products.
He executes his point very, very clearly. When you reach the end he begins to breakdown everything he has said so far. Rushkoff illustrates how each paragraph he used was actually a tactic that many advertisers use for us to purchase their merchandise, or buy into what they have to offer. I was personally amazed at how easily I went along with his story. I found myself thinking, "I know most of the sell tactics and I am not easily fooled to purchase the extras, or buy into the crap that they are trying to tell me." At the end I was baffled that I did not recognize he was using them on the reader. I myself, who thought I knew when I was being coerced, did not feel even slightly inclined to believe he was coercing me and persuading me to go along with his thoughts and ideas.
Rushkoff did a phenomenal job with this article. As he is describing how much he dislikes the way media coerces us to buying or thinking what they want us to, he himself is using the same tactics to make us think what he wants us to think. I could only hope to be half as persuasive as he was in this article. I was oblivious to his persuasion, which made it incredibly effective. After reading this article I am going to try to pay more attention to how people present their information, or sales pitches and hopefully not be as easily persuaded as I was while reading.
Brittany -- you have a good ability to summarize and present information that you read.
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