2. They Say

Growing up in life there are always people who try to instruct you on every move you make.With teachers telling you what you have to learn, the media telling you what to fear, and politicians telling you what you should believe in, it seems impossible to get away from all of it. Every day we are being coerced and manipulated unconsciously by people, corporations, and architectural designs. The author of "They Say",  Rushkoff says, "we are under constant scrutiny and constant assault by a professional class of hidden persuaders." We are being attacked by media and we are not as aware of it as we once were. In this point, we are made to believe that we are not being persuaded by the media due to the evolving form of persuasion techniques. We are made to believe our minds are not being persuaded by a new method of marketing. In the past, we knew that the media targeted us to believe certain things that they wanted us to believe. In the present however, due to a new culture of those who do not want to be persuaded, the types of persuasion techniques used has changed. Especially in our young adults, we do not want to be seen as conformists, and Rushkoff tells us that because of this, the way we are persuaded has been altered. Rushkoff gives the example of Sprite when making this claim. Sprite uses a form of "uncool" advertising to sneakily appeal to the up-and-coming young adult mindset that we cannot conform. The less "up in your face" the marketing is, the less aware that we are that it is occurring, and the more likely we are able to be subjected by it because we are not aware that it is a problem.The ability of the media to "shape our wills" as Rushkoff states, is going to only increase the less aware that we are that there is a problem.
Douglas Rushkoff proves his point even more when he mentions how he uses coercion techniques in his writing to convince the reader to get back behind his ideas. The entire time you are reading his article, you do not feel as if you are being altered or persuaded in any sort, because of the hidden techniques of persuasion that he uses. If we were so easily tricked in his writing, the media is clearly uses this type of persuasion to work on us as well. Only by keeping our guard up and being aware that we are constantly being manipulated will we be able to fend our minds from persuasion.