Philosophy Friday - Happiness and Positivity

Hello and welcome to a somewhat late Philosophy Friday; the day of the week where I talk about the strange serious tone I seem to have picked up as a blogger, and why being happy is awesome.

Because nothing says happy and positive like a Pink haired unicorn wearing armor. (Teehee) Come back on Tuesday next week to find out where said Unicorn is from.

Happy people are awesome people. How do people stay happy? I could be wrong, but I think positivist play a rather large role in it. You ever seen someone smile after saying; "Were all gonna die..." and meaning it? Lets talk about that.

Before I start thought, let me preface the idea behind the article. A friend of mine who reads my blog pointed out that I've become rather somewhat serious in tone lately with my articles, with far less joking and lightheartedness than I'd actually like. A large point of this blog is that I'm seeking a balance between being informative and interesting, while also fairly entertaining. While I can manage that in person easily, it's admittedly an interesting challenge in letters and words. Unfortunately, as I pointed out to my friend, I have been having something of a rough patch in my life, and that has, inadvertently, bled through into my writing. I won't apologize for it, since it's unrealistic to expect anyone to be perfectly happy all the time, but I shall endeavor to bring the joy back from now on.

So, having said that, I thought it was as good a reason as any to talk about why happy people are awesome, and some of the things that typically make for a happy person. (Apart from armored unicorns. Those are so obviously awesome, they don't even need to be mentioned.)

So; what makes a happy person? If we consult the expertly drawn graph I made below, I believe that we can ascertain three visible things which define a happy person.

No need to tell me; I already know how fantastic my drawing skills are.

To summarize; a smile, lots of talking and singing and moves like jagger... I mean swagger... No wait... You know what I mean. Shoulders back, protruding chest, etc. So how does one be happy? Well, there's a there are a lot of things someone can do which may or may not work. Google is your friend if you're really down on ideas, but I find that there are two things that make me a happy person mainly. (Sadly not a pet unicorn though, as much as that would make me happy.*sadface*)

Those two things, are positivity and confidence. Although they are largely the same thing in terms of myself. Other people would tell you the things that make you happy are your family or your religion or any number of other things which; don't get me wrong, can be large factors in your happiness and maybe are key to it for some people; but for me, they were never quite good enough to maintain a happy disposition.

For a long time I was a fairly morose individual, not precisely the funnest person to be around. I was not confident, nor was I positive. I was as defeatist as they came, and would probably have let anyone walk all over me, which they did on occasion. That changed, however, when I finally had a reason to be confident in myself. Turns out, school awards aren't quite as meaningless as they sound. (And things like "Team Award"  sound pretty damn meaningless.) Something I've mentioned a couple of times on this blog is how I started acting and the successes that followed from that. That and my selection as a prefect at school are both what largely gave me the confidence to change as a person; which obviously made me into a happier person.

Something I often say to people, is if they had to meet who I was before all that happened, they would not recognize who I am now with who I was then. From a quiet and timid individual who expected nothing great from them-self, I grew into a confident person from the recognition of my abilities, and thereby a positive person as I grew to believe in what I was able to do. It's an epiphany that likely comes rarely in one's life, but, I think, a great one to help people to grow and mature as people.

So happiness and postivity, fed by confidence. Self-belief is a very important factor in happiness. Quite simply, how can you be happy, if you don't think you can do anything that would make you happy? (If they existed, Unicorns would be a legitimate answer.) So if you're feeling down, consider the great things you've done in your life, and how you know that you have the ability to do so again. Feeling like you can do what you put you mind to is one of the greatest feelings in the world, and when you feel like that, even the non-existence of unicorns can't bring you down.

In any case, I hope that you have found something meaningful in today's (tonight's) post, and perhaps at least appreciate my attempt to bring some lightheartedness to a somewhat serious subject. If you do or did, make sure to let me know about it in the comments below so that I can know to keep at it. Also, make sure to share this any friends of yours who may be lacking in self-confidence. Maybe it'll give them what they need to feel better about themselves. And of course, if you really enjoyed reading this and would like to read more like it, make sure to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the right so that you can get the latest posts, as they are posted. Lastly, I thank you for taking the time to read this, hope you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and will speak again tomorrow.

Goodnight my friends.

Thoughtful Thursday - Shrewd Marketing Tactics

Hello and welcome to Thoughtful Thursday; the day of the... hang on? Thoughtful Thursday? Yes, the day of the week where I tell you about the clever little things that marketers do, and then explain why the day's name changed.

Before you ask... those pixelated patches are intentional. I'm not up for people being mad at me for "casting their company in bad light." Better safe than sorry as they say.

Have you ever wondered about a strange advert, or had an absolutely irritating catchphrase stuck in your head for hours on end? If so, you're pretty much a victim of shrewd marketing tactics in which marketers around the world abuse the way your head works to improve their publicity. Interesting no?

Here's the thing, marketers have one goal; get people to think about the product or service. They will use any dirty trick and manipulate any strangeness that the human mind holds in order to accomplish that goal. Well... mostly. The problem with marketing is that there's no room to be nice about it. If you fail to make the advert stick in a persons mind, you're not being a nice person, you're failing at your job. So to be fair, they have to do it. On the other hand, I hate that because of how effectively some of them do it.

Consider radio adverts that you've listened to over the years. Are there any that spring immediately to mind? Perhaps a catchy jingle or a specific phrase that sung in a certain way? That's successful marketing since you can still remember it. (Or not if you can't.) An unmemorable advert, is a crap advert, to be blunt. I can think of various radio adverts ranging from bathroom furniture to plumbers that have used irritating catchphrases and songs to ensure they got stuck in your head. (Thank goodness for Unhearit.com) One of the more notorious marketing scheme's employed in South Africa was a range of "Steve adverts" in which a bank advertised themselves through a telemarketer named Steve; who continually failed to sell the services of another bank as those he called told him about the bank that had commissioned the adverts. It got bad enough that one of final "Steve" adverts involved a man complaining about said adverts to his friend. (*facedesk*) It was brilliant marketing, but I think I speak for many when I want to bash my head against a wall just thinking about it.

Other adverts use other strange tactics to get you to remember them. Some TV adverts involve people doing stupid things or a somewhat less legal method called "Subliminal Advertising" which involves placing strange things into adverts so that you subconsciously know something is wrong in the advert, but can't consciously tell what, and thereby continue to think about it. They'd do that in a variety of ways such as giving a woman an extra leg or their shadow pointing in the wrong direction. Usually small things that you wouldn't notice consciously with a passing glance.

There's also shock and awe tactics as I call them, in which the marketers do something absolutely unbelievable or against social norms to cause outrage. Various celebrities are notorious for this specific tactic, such as certain child stars who shall not be named, suddenly dancing in a very sexual and suggestive way, or doing music video's naked. As many reasons as they may give for doing so, the fact that so many people got angry about it and voiced their disgust publicly on the internet caused many more people who probably wouldn't have cared, to suddenly take interest and go watch said video. It's a very manipulative idea that can backfire if the marketer goes too far, but it's also very effective.

So why do they make such irritating adverts? Because people talk about it. A common phrase among online content creators of all kinds is that: "positive feedback doesn't exist, but negative feedback is a minority." Which, to a degree, explains this same marketing phenomenon. All those irritating songs or stupid adverts you saw, didn't make you think: "Oh, that's cool." That annoyed you and made you angry. Negative emotions are very powerful in people, so by playing off of that, the marketing is more successful. Not exactly a very nice way to do things, but it works rather well.

So the next time you get annoyed at an ad, perhaps take a moment to laugh at the fact that you're doing exactly what the marketers wanted when they designed the advert; and admire their skill at manipulating you to do so. Do you know of any other strange marketing strategies that they use; or perhaps want to let me know your thoughts on the new Thursday segment? Make sure to let me know in the comments below, and don't forget to share this with any friends who have been getting angry with adverts lately. They might appreciate the irony. Also, if you found this interesting and would like to see more like it, make sure to let me know by liking my Facebook page and/or following me on Twitter so that you can get the latest posts as I make them. Lastly, I thank you for taking the time to read this article; hope that you have/had and absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will see you tomorrow.

Adiós amigos.

As it turns out, I actually forgot to mention why I changed the day's name. (Whoops. Sorry about that. Guess I really got into today's topic.) Turns out there's only so much acting theory you can talk about until you end up sitting wondering what on earth is left. Thoughtful Thursday gives me a proper day to talk about interesting things in the world without constraining me to any single topic, which is good for my rather spontaneous thoughts. Don't fret though, I will likely end up speaking about acting occasionally on either Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays in the future, when I have a reasonable topic to do so.