The last time you stood in line at the grocery store checkout, did you struggle to avoid reading the headlines of the various trashy magazines racked in front of you? If you haven’t noticed how difficult it is, give it a try the next time you’re in the store.
It’s the same with billboards on the side of the road, or advertisements on a city bus or taxi.
Humans (at least those that are literate) are drawn to reading stuff. Why?
It turns out our brains are voracious learning machines. They have evolved to consume and process information, and when it’s offered the brain will gobble it up like a greedy kid stuffing his face with candy after a successful trick-or-treating expedition.
That’s why it’s so difficult to resist reading all those tabloid headlines: our brain is itching to learn more about why Brad and Angelina are choosing family over fame, and what went on inside Beyonce’s wedding.
[Well, that and the fact that our brains love stories, but that’s a tale for another time.]
Marketers know this and exploit it. Take a spin through any city or mid-sized town and you’ll be barraged with words, images, and symbols designed for the dual purpose of:
- Satisfying your brain’s craving for more information, and
- Getting you to buy endless quantities of stuff
But there’s no reason why you can’t exploit it as well.
Social media is addictive for the very same reason. Your brain loves to chow down for countless hours on pictures, stories, and memes about your friends, friends of friends, and people you don’t even know. It’s all new information, and your brain luuurves new information.
It’s not terribly useful information, of course, and in that way social media is more like M&M’s for the brain than it is protein and veggies.
So provide your mind with a little discipline. When you find yourself craving some Facebook or Instagram, instead try consuming something both new and useful.
A few M&M’s once in awhile won’t kill you. But filling up on them day after day will leave you restless and unfulfilled.