Would you agree that repetition is the mother of learning? That the more you repeat an affirmation, the more you repeat a skill or the more you repeat a behaviour, the easier it is to follow?

Sure!

Herbert E. Krugman wrote, “Why three exposures may be enough” and many advertisers followed it. He claimed that exposures beyond three were simply repeats of three and that even if you discontinue the impressions, there is no danger of people forgetting your ad.

Thomas Smith wrote a guide in 1885 entitled, “Successful Advertising” claiming that it takes 20 exposures before a purchase is made. He suggests that the ad is not seen the first time, then is seen, is argued, eventually becomes annoying, is questioned how the product producers can continue to pay for the ad, then eventually the individual curses themselves for not having the money to buy the product, only to end up buying it in the long run.

Jumping to today, with full-on media and our need to bow to it at every available moment, we hand over our minds from “real” to “reality” and our lives are shaped thusly.

Let me explain with an experiment Krugman did in 1969. He hooked up electrodes to the back of subjects’ heads while they watched television and monitored their physiology on a polygraph through two computers. Within 30 seconds the subjects went from their brains operating in Beta – alert and conscious attention state – to Alpha, unfocused and receptive state.

Translation: media is the perfect tool to disengage and hypnotize you (and used accordingly).

Advertising messages excluded, when you park yourself in front of the screen, what are you seeing repetitively? (That’s a trick question because your subconscious mind sees about 10,000 images a second so you are actually seeing everything.) Maybe a better question is, what are you becoming? Has digital life become more meaningful than real life?

In a documentary James Corbett produced on media, he shares that we now have a blur between real and reality and that our experiences are often not directly lived but are mere representations.

To add to that, we mirror what we see naturally as a safety mechanism to fit in. Now, did you ever notice that many famous children’s cartoons have orphans as the main character? Did you notice that many sitcoms take place in coffee shops or where alcohol flows? Did you notice that broken families, being overworked and not having enough to make ends meet, is hailed as noble whereas success is associated with deception and selfishness? Are we being tricked into accepting a normal that is not normal at all?

Aha! ~ “Fix the cause, not the symptom” ~ Steve Maguire

I tasked myself to a media audit years ago, my media time with respect to how it was potentially influencing my behaviour, results, and lifestyle. I’ve long been unable to carry on conversations about popular shows or famous entertainers but have a headful of documentaries by real life people who are difference-makers. And I was reminded again last week of the true power of just “being”. My son and I enjoyed Bermuda - real time experiences in nature, meeting with beautiful people, enjoying delectable food and us both having thinking and creating time – which brought on the most profound smiles of feeling whole and present.

I’ll borrow Corbett’s closing words with a reminder that, “The off button is in your hands.”

When you decide it's time for the button to come on, join us and subscribe to A Human Approach on YouTube to view more on The Off Button.