Marketing techniques heavily rely on of the power of social pressure to manipulate consumption. The effects of this abuse are far reaching and devastating. The fact is that socializing and culture are natural, beautiful things that human beings have evolved to help us survive and adapt. We literally can't survive without each other. Abusing the ability to make individuals feel left out and disconnected, is in a sense no different than abusing the natural biological attraction to sugar and fat to cause people to crave your product.
When things like this are pervasive, in certain cases it can induce an unhealthy level of "left-outedness" that in some individuals is so insidious that it impairs their brains from functioning properly. They are never able to escape the feeling that something is wrong with them.
What's tricky, however, is that social pressure, when used responsibly, is also a force for good. It keeps people from acting out in ways that are horribly damaging. It allows the strength and knowledge of one individual be shared to hundreds, even thousands of individuals through technology like writing and music. Social pressure has two forces: a negative force that promotes separation for damaging acts, and a positive force that promotes acceptance and admiration for helpful acts.
Drastic change may not be needed, as long as we listen to the warnings that pop up. Personally, I think that we are very good at diagnosing a disease of the individual, but poor at diagnosing a disease of the conglomerate. Culture is how we know ourselves. Self-expression in cultural ways is immensely healthy and beneficial to everyone, yet opportunity and education to do so effectively is increasingly given disincentive. There is a huge difference between being excellent at art and using it to sell a product, and being excellent at art and using it to say something close to your heart. The first will sell products, which allows people to make money, to afford shelter and nourishment. The second will keep the our minds healthy, nourishing them with insight and knowledge. We need both to survive.
To be honest, there are already signs that the economy is naturally changing as we collectively realize that we need both kinds of nourishment to be healthy. Public outcry is giving corporations and other companies incentives to make their cultural contributions more positive and balanced. It is a difficult task, because the economy is in a sense "addicted" to the profits that come from the use of psychological pressure to get people to be brand loyal and buy certain products. I want to emphasize that it is NOT the profit-seeking that is the issue. Seeking prosperity is a natural thing to value. The system will fix itself if it is given the opportunity to understand what is going on. That's what I think at least. However, these are difficult problems and we are bound to make mistakes. The question is not whether we as a people will learn what we need to know, and implement it, the question is how much will we suffer along the way. To minimize the suffering, we must abandon hate and embrace love. Others have shown the way to use love and courage in the past, to force societal change. However, the way that love and courage emerges to change our society at this point in time may look entirely different. This is because our society has changed, so the way we influence it may change. However, the underlying precepts are the same. Personal courage, non-violence, steadfast determination. Nothing is more challenging than stepping outside the boundaries of the beaten path, and standing strong there. But as past events have shown, it is not impossible, and the rewards are great.
In addition to all this, in a huge social group like the ones that exist now due to communication technology, it is more and more difficult to get your voice heard. Not only do we need artists who are skilled at expression and communication, we need artists who are knowledgeable enough to get our lazy asses to listen for two seconds. The reason we have such "short" attention spans, is that we biologically evolved to process information from much smaller social groups than the ones we now have access to. We are animals fighting for survival over basic resources like food and water. And we have given birth to a meta-economy where ideas fight for survival over the only thing that sustains them: attention.
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