I think that all of us have been immersed in a sea of persuasion lately with the recent election that has taken place and all of the advertising that led up to it. I am a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service, so I have probably been bombarded by political advertising more than most in the recent weeks. Not only did I see advertisements when I watched television, see posts on social networking sites regarding politics, and get political advertisements in the mail, I literally handled and looked at hundreds and some days thousands of political advertisements. Because I work in Sacramento County, but live in Placer County, the advertisements that I had direct contact with every day at work were often for politicians that I was not even able to vote for or against. I was surprised by the time the election came how much I knew about some of the politicians that I had done absolutely no research on and had no interest in just because of what I had seen in their ads, which I rarely ever made a conscious effort to read.
I think that Facebook has been another area in which I have been confronted with persuasive messages in regards to politics without ever wanting to be. I ended up hiding updates from many of my friends and family because I got so sick of seeing their politically charged comments and their links to news stories that I strongly disagreed with or felt were unfairly biased. At times I was even offended to the point of wanting to confront some of them, but generally I felt it was best to spare the long term relationship from the damage of a political argument. I think that it is impossible to avoid being subjected to persuasive messages, especially in today's interactive internet culture and with the mass media that many of us expose ourselves to daily. The best that we can do is to make sure that we remain informed about important issues and try not to make decisions based on a gut reaction or feeling. Often time our initial feelings are heavily subconsciously effected by the opinions that others (especially advertisers) have pushed on to us. If we inform ourselves and take time to form our opinions we can be sure that we are making good decisions that we truly believe in.
I actually used the same example as you did. All of the hype about the election could be seen in virtually all facets of life. I too got pretty sick of all of the political persuasion that I found splashed all over my facebook and newsfeed. I think persuasion on the part of friends and family can actually be the most harmful if it is not done properly. One thing I notice in regards to persuasion surrounding the election was that people had no decorum or civility on the matter. The minute that they found out that you are in favor of another candidate than themselves all hell breaks loose and nobody could guess that you've been friends for years! I just briefly mentioned in one status update that Romney hit a slam dunk on the first presidential debate. This led to a flood of angry comments from supposedly close friends. I literally had to say, "If you don't agree with me that's fine, but I'm not going to get in to a heated political debate with my friends. It's not worth it." Well anyways, persuasion can be a very powerful thing, and if it turns in to coercion or unprofessionalism then it can get down right ugly!
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