on Persuasion
Learning how everything is trying to convince you of something
A post popped up on Threads that said “Books are the best. There are no ads in them.”
I couldn’t help myself and replied: “Every book is trying to convince you of something. Like an ad.”
I love books, I own too many books. But it’s helpful to remember they are written by someone trying to convince you of something: an argument, an idea, a way of seeing the world. That’s persuasion.
We usually think of persuasion as the annoying stuff. The ad you wait 5 seconds before clicking skip.. or the bank calling again to offer you a third credit card. But mostly, it’s just someone trying to get you to see what they see, care about what they care about, and agree that their version of things makes sense (sometimes with some sciencey-sounding words thrown in so it feels more true).
A film persuades you who to care about. Architecture persuades you where and how to walk and also where you are not welcome to sit. Restaurants persuade you that four small plates are somehow a reasonable dinner. Clothing persuades you who you are or can be, or at least who you’d like other people to think you are.
Photography persuades you this is the moment worth seeing. Museums persuade you what’s worth preserving and presenting. Maps persuade you what’s interesting and what’s ignorable. Design persuades you something is useful or beautiful. News persuades you what happened and why it matters (and usually who to blame).
Everything humans make carries persuasion. Including this post. Including the font and layout it’s set in. Which is a funny thing to notice while writing something trying to convince you that everything is persuasion.
Your mum calling you for dinner is persuasion. Your child refusing to eat dinner is persuasion (and often more convincing than your mum calling you for dinner). Your friend sending you something at 11pm with no context and just “watch this” is persuasion. We’re all at it, all the time.
Then I started thinking about the opposite. What are some things that don’t try to persuade us?
Probably most things that are not made by humans.
A tree just grows.. a rock just sits there.. a river just flows.. the rain just falls.. a mountain just stands there. None of them are trying to convince us of anything. They’re just there and they’ve been there for a very long time (the rock especially).
But wait, you might be wondering: “That’s not true. The rain is telling me something. It’s telling me not to step out of the house. It’s telling me to bring an umbrella. And there’s also that big tree that’s in my way, so it’s telling me to walk around it.”
Well, technically, none of them told us anything. Our minds did.
A group of people look at the same mountain. One sees beauty. Another sees a challenge. Another is just wondering if there’s a cable car and where lunch is. The mountain didn’t persuade any of them. We persuaded ourselves.
The thing doesn’t create the meaning. We do. And the same thing becomes completely different depending on the stories we bring to it.
A book can be an advertisement and an advertisement can be a book. Both are human-made things trying to convince you of something. The difference is mostly in how much you trust the person who made it.
—
Felix Ng
Co-founder, Anonymous
@felix.anonymous