How often are you presented with some message about how popular a product or service is, in order to make you feel as though you are missing out by not purchasing it or using it or taking part? This is done all over the place, from in politics, to on sites, to on television, to anywhere where persuasion has a place, and some areas where it doesn’t. Here I discuss what you want to watch for and how to protect yourself from getting manipulated:
Blue Is Blue And Green Is Green
If I try to convince you that something that is blue is actually green, you will think I am a moron. If I try to convince you that something that is green is actually blue, you will continue to think that about me.
This doesn’t change if I have 200000 people supporting my contradictions. Yet, all over the place, an effort is made to do something like this. I have also done this at times.
A politician who happens to not have a solid sense of economic policy, who presents a plan that is not sustainable or realistic, and who happens to have some hundreds of thousands supporting him, still has a plan that is not sustainable or realistic.
A writer who is providing information that is not useful or compelling or based on valid examples or past knowledge, but who has many readers, can use that readership to try to steamroll certain ideas through, or to try to confirm their presence. You have to be watchful of this. Also, quality tends to diminish with greater support because it is often the case that a big ego starts to build from that greater support, and so lower quality output is tested to see if it is good enough to keep the cycle going.
Look At What You Are Getting
Going from a sites example, if one site with 300000 subscribed readers has a piece that has a line saying to eat fish every 3 days for good health, and another site with 10 subscribed readers says the exact same thing, it’s not like you are getting more value from the more popular site. Popularity only has an effect on those who allow themselves to be swayed by it.
This also relates to celebrities. What are you getting when you are sitting next to a celebrity? Any value is only residual value about telling your friends that you met them or showing a picture of the time. They get large amounts of money for showing up at a nightclub or other location, and they leave just as quickly.
If you are getting a certain item from an interaction or purchase, make sure you know what it is. You are not getting the 300000 subscribers when you read an article from a site with that many, and are not getting celebrity status by shaking hands with a celebrity of some type. It is an ephemeral transaction and the value you get is rooted in the foundational components, like guidance you get, or enthusiasm that is passed on. Look for what matters and disregard manipulative tactics.
If something is popular, it is more likely to go south than to increase in value and popularity. The difficulty of maintaining popularity is that human nature is directed towards getting used to what has been acquired and starting to expect good to come on its own.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Armen, people are drawn to energy. Popularity draws people together because people are attracted to energy. Yes, it’s true that just because something is well known doesn’t mean it’s the best. There are many people who make a better, tastier burger than McDonald’s. But McDonalds has the popular pull to attract. And that’s what its about…attracting people to serve their purpose. However, lets be aware and notice the popular pull of being accepted and ask ourselves if this is really serving our best interests.
Twitter: Armen
July 8, 2010 at 10:37 am
Hi El Capitan.
Energy is a big factor. We see areas where there is a lot of energy and want to absorb some of it and be part of the process.
McDonalds sure does use some of the most advanced methods to attract and maintain their customer base. Awareness is all we can maintain to prevent being manipulated by these methods.
I totally agree with you on that El Capitan. I guess it’s just human nature.
Twitter: Armen
July 8, 2010 at 10:45 am
Hi Miranda.
He sure had a valid point there about how we gravitate towards people with energy. It is part of our nature, but we can also overcome our nature through logical thinking.
Yes Armen, it wise to be wary of popularity. Anything that is handed to us from the world-voice deserves a degree of skepticism. People who love the human jungle love the world-voice. Trust no information that does not feel right. Ask questions with a willingness to drop harmful attitudes that block the truth. When we declare our independence to think for ourselves, our mind looks calmly with an eye for separating fact from fiction. We are then able to determine the opinions that govern the movement of our mind.
Twitter: Armen
July 8, 2010 at 11:13 am
Hi Rob.
That makes sense about not trusting something if it doesn’t feel right. Your general instinct is mostly correct enough to be accepted in all cases, with a few errors resulting, but mostly good results coming through. Also, when you don’t do what doesn’t feel right, you start to build up a record of following your mind, and this consistency pays off because you trust yourself more and more.
Great post, I think generally people like to be part of a group, whether what that group is about is right or wrong, they at least have validation from lots of other people who think the same. It takes courage and strength to go against the grain…..I think people should do it more though:)
Kate
Twitter: Armen
July 8, 2010 at 11:15 am
Hi Kate.
This is another great take on it. We sure do want to be part of a group. Very few people are comfortable outside of one group or another, because then they feel more vulnerable and out-of-place. When we see 5 people do something, we might think it is a weird thing, but when we see 1000 people do it, we start to think that it might have validity, and think of reasons it is something worth doing.
The few that go against the grain either get the biggest disadvantages or get the biggest advantages.
Twitter: calmgrowth
July 8, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Nice…
Why popular sites get a lot of buzz for the average articles? Social validation. Personally, I do not estimate websites based on that. But people look to others when deciding what to do. Their need for social validation is too high, regardless of common sense.
When my friend was not sure which phone to buy, he looked on the internet which phone has the most votes on some website. I knew and told him that there are cheaper and better phones, however, I was only one vote, while the website had hundreds of people voted…
There are a few things that were destroyed by their popularity. There is ego involved, with all its elements. Once the ego does not have so much power over us, popularity is not so important, and it can not harm us.
Twitter: Armen
July 9, 2010 at 10:42 am
Hi Marko.
Social validation carries a lot of weight. Sometimes it leads us in the right direction, but sometimes it leads us far away from what is actually in our reality. There is a lot of garbage out there that has a lot of support, and while the support may be good intentioned, we have to analyze what and who we are supporting.
That point about the phone sure is a valid one. I even got my computer parts a couple of years ago from NewEgg based on Most Reviews, and while this seemed to lead to solid purchases, there is just as much of a likelihood that cheap parts can become most reviewed for being cheap, and then you have short-term parts.
Ego leads to great things and the worst things.
Twitter: joshuanoerr
July 9, 2010 at 6:34 am
Armen, we see this throughout history when people make a falacious appeal to tradition. Look at slavery, it was the popular notion for a long time, but that did not make it any less wrong.
Slavery is not the only example, history is full of them, especially in the area of medicine. As you said, popular is just that, popular. It doesn’t make it right or good or solid.
Cheers on a great post!
Twitter: Armen
July 9, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hi Joshua.
Slavery sure was popular for a long while among certain sets of folks, and this is a fine example of looking at whether something that is popular is good for humans as a whole. While very few people look at decisions based on how they affect humans as a whole, we are getting to a future where this is required because we are becoming more interconnected. I am somewhat glad that humanity has no choice but to head in this direction.
Your medicine addition also brings some examples to mind. We have had drugs that became very popular very quickly, and then 9 months later, they were reported to cause some alternate problem.
Twitter: aflourishinglif
July 9, 2010 at 7:58 am
Hi Armen,
When I was young and naive, I used to believe everything I saw in print. I thought that because it was published, it must be true. Now I know better.
I am always a fan of seeing things clearly and questioning to get to the truth of the matter. From living in families and cultures, we develop so many subtle ideas about what is right and how things should be. We hold these distorted beliefs, then live our lives according to them. Believing what is popular is one of these.
Your post does a great service by inviting us to question these beliefs. The mind can be sneaky. If we don’t question everything, we find ourselves in a place of confusion and discontent. As we come to know and trust ourselves, we can stand in our own spot with our feet rooted firmly on the ground no matter what shows up to try to shake us.
Twitter: Armen
July 9, 2010 at 10:52 am
Hi Gail.
I hear you on that. I often believe what I read, and then after the fact remember that much needs to be verified or compared with other sources. I have a pretty good sense of the biases and flaws that come up in published works, so I am able to avoid most of them.
That point about finding the truth brings to mind that the truth is often left out or covered up. The most valuable piece of information in an article is often not in the article, if that makes sense. A businessperson who is profiting off of, let’s say, the discrepancy between the monetary units of two countries, might write a piece about how they profit from using virtual assistants, leaving out the point about their real profit-making. This is all over the place, and is a common tactic people use. We are all worried that if we give up our important information, we will lose out in the grand scheme, not realizing that false manipulation gets us to the top of a pile of nothing.
Armen,
This is so true. I have seen this in every aspect of life to sell a product or information by creating a need for it, making it popular by ads and paid clients testimonials. It works so well in blog world too, unfortunatley many people like to follow popular trends and follow popular people and things.
I on the other hand, doing things that my heart says for example I am one the last 5 people who is not on tweeter. Just because it is popular, one does not need to follow it. Crazy? Maybe. Unreasonable, I think not.
Preeti @ Heart and Mind´s last [type] ..No Spend Month Challenge- Update 1
Twitter: Armen
July 12, 2010 at 9:01 am
Hi Preeti.
You sure might be one of the last 5 people not on Tweeter. There are at least 4 others somewhere. I hear you about testimonials. While they are not so inherently wrong, we have to view them as though they represent a small sample of people. Our minds tend to want to think that each show of support represents way more than it does. There is always a battle between those using persuasion and those avoiding the effects of persuasion on them.