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| comment | | "parent_author":"",<br>"parent_permlink":"informationwar",<br>"author":"millicow",<br>"permlink":"the-war-in-our-minds",<br>"title":"The War In Our Minds",<br>"body":"**Everything you experience,<br>** combined with how you react and process (or don't process) those experiences,<br> is everything that **shapes your mind.**\n\n**We experience a lot**,<br> even in one day.\n\nWe often don't spend enough time to reflect on *\"who am I?\" \"what am I not?\" \"who do I want to be?\" \"where are my thoughts stemming from?\"*\n\n**How often do you go a day without seeing some kind of advertisement?** Even if you don't use the Internet,<br> or watch TV,<br> they're on billboards on the highways,<br> signs by bus stops. There might be some trash laying on the ground as you are walking where you walk every day,<br> with a familiar symbol on it. Lots of public places have the radio playing in the background. TVs mounted in restaurants.\n\n**We have extensive memories of logos and brands** from sheer exposure over the years. Even if you can't think of the design for a certain product or company,<br> see it and you'll likely know the name that goes with it,<br> to your own surprise.\n\nAdvertisements and scenes on TV often go by quickly,<br> in a matter of seconds,<br> not only squeezing in more content in less time,<br> but feeding information **quicker than the brain can process it,<br> scrambling and crowding the brain** with more chaos and chatter and confusion. Then you're left with not your own conclusions and understanding,<br> but the imprint of the content itself,<br> left unfiltered by your mind.\n\nStreaming services use algorithms to play music that others with similar tastes are listening to. **People rarely search for music that they resonate with,<br>** rather they live with whatever is most easily accessible and familiar. There's very little diversity in what many people consume. The same is true for many radio stations which repeat hit songs tuned to a certain genre,<br> decade,<br> type of people,<br> and those people accept it,<br> and few question *\"what other great music is out there that I'm missing out on?\"*\n\n**Our cultures contain many stories,<br>** whether it's the type of life people around you live,<br> the basic plots of popular movies that everyone's seen,<br> popular books,<br> shows,<br> **all of these influencing how we think.**\n\n**Media,<br>** images,<br> music,<br> sounds,<br> ideas,<br> stories,<br> and thoughts are being **fed to us and planted in our heads.** This stream of information permeates daily modern life. The stream *repeats* and *repeats* and *repeats* things to drill them into our heads,<br> water the seeds it planted before,<br> and if you aren't paying attention,<br> grow them into an ugly garden. It feels as if the media that's almost forced upon us is subtly **controlling how and what we think and live.**\n\n**Who is behind these** constant and nearly unavoidable streams of consumption? Most of the time,<br> **people after money.** People that benefit from selling simplified,<br> watered down,<br> manufactured art,<br> and ideas that grow easily in the mind,<br> resonating with common sentiments **without challenging our minds or helping us grow.** Ideas that keep us from thinking outside of their box.\n\n**Why let anyone else define how you think,<br> what you do,<br> how you live,<br> who you are?** Experience influences thought. Thought becomes word,<br> word becomes action,<br> action becomes habit,<br> and habit becomes character. **Only you should be in control of this process.**\n\nSurround yourself with ideas,<br> sounds,<br> images,<br> people,<br> and stories that you **really resonate with,<br>** that support who you really are and want to be. **Do all the digging you need to do** to find these things. **Design your world** to harmonize with you rather than distract,<br> confuse,<br> and slow you down from becoming **the best version of yourself.**\n\n***Realize You.*** The world you live in isn't designed to help you do that. In these times more than ever we need to stay vigilant,<br> remember our selves,<br> and **create our reality from within,<br>** instead of regurgitating the poisons we're fed.\n\n**Be true to yourself.** You'll feel much better.\n\n*takes off tinfoil hat* here,<br> this might be of use to you.",<br>"json_metadata":" \"tags\":[\"informationwar\",<br>\"psychology\",<br>\"society\",<br>\"truth\",<br>\"life\" ,<br>\"app\":\"steemit\/0.1\",<br>\"format\":\"markdown\" " |
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