The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines"

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Strong rec ericgj · 2017-10 · on “'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia”

Thanks for your part in getting this story published! If you have not seen it, the BBC series "The Century of the Self" details the pre-history of these tendencies in the creation of the public relations industry by Freud's nephew Edward Bernays [0]. It is truly fascinating and horrific -- all 4 or 5 hours of it! Social media/big data has also made the consumer a (not fully willing or conscious) _producer_ of mass addiction, through the exploitation of their social graph data. There is a fictive "work contract": give me your data and we'll give you your buzz. This relationship is based on unwaged work. What if this work, the value of it to BigTech, were recognized? It leaves open the possibi

Strong rec klingonopera · 2019-05 · on “Breakfast is a relatively modern invention”

There's a great four-part documentary by Adam Curtis about Edward Bernays, his career and the rise of marketing in the 20th century called "The Century Of The Self". It's available on YT: [this video]

Strong rec beautifulfreak · 2019-07 · on “Advertising Is a Cancer on Society”

I highly recommend the documentary, Century of the Self, which details how Bernays' theories about advertising were put to use by Nazis. [this video] [LINK]

Strong rec torpid · 2024-06 · on “Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers”

The Century of the Self documentary by Adam Curtis does an incredible job of covering that and is well-worth the watch. [this video] [LINK]

Recommends the_greyd · 2018-09 · on “Taming the Lizard Brain”

I would recommend the documentary [The Century of the Self]( [this video] ) about advertising as propoganda, in which Edwards Bernays plays a central role.

Recommends diydsp · 2018-10 · on “DarkPulsar”

Of course, man. I grew up with the Apple ][ and C64 and we all saw a future where small businesses and creative people would make zany, informative, cute newsletters to advertise their wares. Our parents and teachers prepared us for a world mostly like the one that existed in 1980, but some of the icky parts like bookkeeping were ameliorated by the 6502. We went online a little bit, but mostly to goof around, trade some software and maybe sometimes discuss and flame, but it was always a tiny part of life, about the footprint on our time as the card game UNO. An interesting diversion, but certainly not a daily activity, much less a dependency . Of course, older now, we realize there was much

Recommends deepakkarki · 2019-05 · on “Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-national evidence”

Folks in this thread may find this interesting, a 4 part documentary on Edward Bernays and the history of advertising and PR as we know it today. [this video] From the video description - "The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book,

Recommends stephenSinniah · 2019-10 · on “Still Manufacturing Consent: An Interview with Noam Chomsky”

Adam Curtis has a good documentary about Bernays influence in the PR industry.It's a really good watch [this video]