So many teachers and so many texts have stated it:
What you think creates your reality.
What you feel inside magnetically attracts the same to you in the external world.
As above, so below.
What you see behind your eyes creates what you see in front of your eyes.
A reminder often stated with these truths seems obvious: Watch your thoughts, watch your words.
A related reminder is: Watch what you Google, watch what you search for online.
Programmatic advertising is the immediate, technological proof of statements such as “What you think creates your reality”.
These days, when you think about something, especially something you want, you most likely Google it. You search for it online. The next time you log into Facebook, your favorite news site, or even a random website, you see the very thing you thought about and Googled. Not just one ad, but many. Ads promoting what you searched for appear everywhere!
These ads are “programmed” to display according to data captured about you from various sources — your insurance provider, credit cards, the music you listen to, and much, much more — including what you search for on Google and Amazon.
Advertisers argue programmatic ads are helpful to you (the “consumer”). Advertisers say these ads guide you to items that fit your profile, based on things you searched for — thought about — previously. Advertisers can even predict other “related” items you might want, based on your current search, previous searches, and your profile.
So: you search for something; a little later you see an online ad for that same item; you click and explore the offering. Even if you decide not to purchase the item at that moment, merely clicking the programmatic ad triggers more ads of a similar vein to be displayed to you. Soon, something that was a little thought, a Googled item, manifests everywhere in your online world — and even your offline world.
Programmatic advertising now extends to platforms beyond your computer, your tablet, and your phone. You could encounter related ads on electronic billboards, radio/streaming services, and more.
What did your one thought, your one search, trigger?
Can you get away from that item, the ads, and your thoughts about it? Or are they reinforced by what you see “out there”?
Are you waiting for the ads to change, so you can have a different selection of items from which to choose?
Or do you have to change what you search for before the ads you see “out there” change?
Ah.
I’m always amazed at how technology mirrors what we humans have the capability — or need — to do within ourselves.
We have to change what we search for first.
We have to change what’s inside, before we can change what’s outside.
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