There's a channel on Are.na called "to-do list" put together by user Jack Grimes. It's a collection of commands found in advertising, video games, and just about any miscellanea you can imagine. He adds to it frequently and I see it on my dashboard nearly every day. Some of my favorites below:
This channel has 874 blocks saved to it, all following the same pattern. Seeing these phrases out of context really highlights the absurdity of like, everything. All of us here on this planet desperately attempting to persuade each other to do this or that.
Since coming across this channel, I've been noticing this messaging everywhere in my daily life. Even in places I seek out voluntarily. My favorite podcasts and Youtube Channels are full of commands.
These kinds of demands are pretty harmless, and sometimes purposeful satire.
There's another sort of persuasion tactic I see in thumbnails constantly. The template is to speak in second person, and tell the reader/viewer something about themselves, often in a somewhat condescending manner.
More insidiously, I see this phrasing constantly in text posts on Tumblr and Reddit. It works really well as engagement bait. It plays to the reader's insecurities and makes them want to defend themself somehow.
The one that especially bothers me is, "...But y'all aren't ready for that conversation."
More than anything this phrase is a meme now, and not used to assert anything all that serious. But idk man, it gets to me anyway. It triggers this part of me that hates being misunderstood. Like not only is the statement making an assumption about what I think/who I am, it's trying to speak for me too. That shit makes feel so yucky.
The first archetypal, smarmy persuader I was introduced to was probably Herb Tarlek from WKRP in Cincinnati.
Frank Bonner played Herb's character so well. And as I'm noticing more and more persuasive tactics in my daily life, I am starting to see his smug expression in my head. It's his voice telling me I need to fix my life. I need to read more, I need to stay organized, I need to lose weight, I need to re-brand, I need to fill in the blank.
It's not that these tasks are automatically nefarious. It can be good to read more, for example. But the assumption that reading more is the best thing for me specifically? That's not an idea I came up with. And yet I feel imaginary pressure and shame.
I struggle a lot with the question of what to do next at any given moment. Executive dysfunction. To keep myself afloat, I rely on multiple calendars, note-taking tools, timers, routines, and checklists. So like, it's hard enough just trying to exist comfortably. And all of these commands from outside sources are noise, constantly confusing the signal I'm already struggling to discern.
But I'm not ready for that conversation.