One of the podcasts which I really like is Radio Opensource, a wide variety of topics are discussed which are followed up with discussions on the website. Recently there was a podcast titled “The End of Free Will?”, It discusses about how advertising in a capitalist society and busy lifestyles influence the choices people make.

I particlarly feel that in this present world free will and choice are just an illusion. As the influence of media and peers which often manipulates our decision making. As humans we are often tempted to lean towards the most comforting side and when you have to think less the more comfortable you feel. So we often make choices based on popular culture and flashes of branding embedded deep in our psyche and ignore the fact that how good these decisions really are? Because we just dont have the time! And all this leads to more complicated problems for instance bad health from eating cheap and large quantities of fastfood.

Certain user in the forums of Open source resonates with exactly what I feel.. He says :
“There are complex psychological factors that lead the impoverished, uneducated, immigrant and disenfranchised to be highly influenced by advertising and offers made to them in person. The advertising companies spend millions on psychological studies and consultants to figure out how to take advantage of the psychology of their target audience. You can write about your experience, but to ignore the overwhelming data and claim that everybody else should just be like you is patently dismissive and does nothing to address the reality. People are weak for whatever reasons they are, it is not ethical to prey on those weaknesses. Except in an amoral capitalistic economic model.”