3 C’s, why so many ads

COVID changed the working dynamics. with this change in our lifestyle, social media marketing changed as well. Everyone was becoming an entrepreneur and everyone was everywhere in the virtual world of the internet.

It's hell, it's like being exposed to too much content without any power to block some of it. The constant popup notifications by the apps are too annoying. And all of this affected me as much as anyone could get affected by them.

COVID affected the businesses. But most of the businesses were saved as they were already operating on the online medium, the social networks. With social distancing policies and stay indoor orders, like me everyone was shopping groceries and other things online. initially, it was only groceries and now it's everything.

This access to things over the internet and social media, made us overwhelmed which lead to decision fatigue. I never thought that shopping would bore me or selecting a few things would be difficult. But the times have changed and now it’s hard to choose something you like the most easily.

Yes, I know, you are asking why is this so. I used to ask this as well for a very long period of time until I sat down to see what went wrong and how to fix it.

Decision Fatigue increases when businesses make people see the products they are selling even when people don’t need these things. But as the businesses have to survive and somehow market their products, they have to opt for some sort of a marketing technique.

So you may ask, how do these businesses use social media to bombard us with so many useless ads? And also, how does social media marketing affect one’s judgment resulting in decision fatigue.

I am going to be very honest here, I will not be doing justice if I told you that I am not a victim of decision fatigue. in simplest words, it’s a problem where businesses make you see everything they are making, I mean like literally everything which is being marketed, without having your consent to see them or knowing that you need them.

And this exposure, with unlimited access to everything, makes it very difficult for a person like me to make a choice. People will always tell you that it's a good thing to have options. But please allow me to ask you this, are you sure you want to have infinite access to products without having a need of them?

So, I had to make a filter for myself and I want my colleagues to have a filtering process for them as well. Finally, after weeks of being bombarded with ads, I was able to find a perfect filtering solution to my problem with a 3 point identification system.

Let's any further ado lets dig in and see how we can make a filtering process. First thing first, you will be seeing ads of the products which you already have or had in the past with minor upgrades. As you already have that so you need to have a very strong reason for buying them again.

This is based on a triple C rule. Consume, Create and Connect. The triple C rule helped me decide that whatever the product is, I will only buy it if it fulfills any of the two C’s out of the three.

For example, A phone will help me connect with people but my current phone is working fine so why bother. But at the same time, a new tablet can help accelerate my path to a career as a graphics designer. Do you see what I did here?

Rather than walking into an ad trap and getting myself a new phone (which I don't need), I choose to get a tablet that I could use to get hands-on experience in graphic designing.

Now that I have the 3 C’s principle to follow, it’s time to implement these 3 C’s (Consume, Create and Connect) in your life. Please don't be confused about what to do and how to choose what you want? Follow the following checklist and find out what you need.

1. You have to see through everything clearly and have a Hell Yeah or No to things.
2. You only need to have things which you absolutely need not just everything which is good for you.
3. You should only choose to buy those things which you will be needing to survive on daily basis, not things that will have no purpose in your life.
4. You should buy things with only cash in hand and not a credit card or bank loan.
5. last but not the least, look around you and see how many things are there which you don't use and still have. Is it worth having these things?

And in the end, I am going to leave you here with a suggestion which is everything is figure out-able. This approach helped me get mastery over many skills that I never would’ve tried. No task is too big and no field too complex unless there are institutional barriers; everything can be mastered.