It’s Not Magic, It’s Behavioral Targeting…but it can seem like magic.
How The Advertising Industry Makes Modern-Day Synchronicities a Moment-by-Moment Occurrence:
Merriam-Webster defines Synchronicity as “the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (such as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality —used especially in the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung”
In the past, these magical “psychic” events were rare. They might happen by pure coincidence or, as some people believe, they are caused by a divine force- god or another higher intelligence. I cannot be sure how often someone experienced these synchronicities in the past. It could have been once a year or once in a lifetime. It could have been experienced more often by people who think spiritual thoughts, those who meditate, or by those who are very religious.
Today, however, synchronicity is all around us, minute by minute, hour by hour. You think about something and you see more about that thing all over the place. Today, synchronicity is also experienced by everybody, the spiritual and agnostic alike. In this modern time, we live in an almost magical world where relevant topics pop up all around us. Life is very different in this case.
Did this big shift happen because the divine force is more present in our lives now? No. Unfortunately, this magical existence is not proof that a savior is getting close or that we are more in tune with the spiritual as a species. Today’s modern magic results from the new types of corporate advertising.
One of the reasons corporations can act godlike is that, in a way, they are godlike. The modern company is omniscient, they know everything, like god would. Just as you can surprise your child over and over again because you have access to so much more information than they do, the modern corporation can produce coins from the ear of the consumer all day long.
Here are how companies track our actions to advertise to use in the new, magical way:
Cookies: when you go to a website, a small piece of data is stored on your device so that the website owner can track your behavior
Retargeting: advertisers can target people who have previously visited a website or almost made a purchase, “there’s that blender again. It’s everywhere.”
Behavioral targeting: companies deliver ads to people based on their past online behavior, “Sure. I’ll buy one. I love those. How did they know?”
Pixel tracking: another invisible tracker embedded into web pages or emails
Cross-device tracking: You look at a car on your laptop and then, later, you see an ad for that car on your mobile phone. “That must be a good car. I keep seeing it.”
Data brokers: Digital spies that sell the information they discover to advertisers
Personalized advertising: ads tailored to the person’s demographics, interests, behaviors, and preferences, often using algorithms and Artificial Intelligence
All of this technology is still very new to us. We know that corporations are tracking us but, since most of us have lived most of our lives without that kind of spying, we forget that it’s happening. All of this makes our modern life seem many times more “magical” that life would have been for someone a few decades ago.
Someone might have the feeling of Déjà Vu. Once or twice a year, you might feel as if something has happened to you before when it was the first time. In the past, you might have needed a specific item only to discover that the store had only one more of that item and that you got there just in time. Your new teacher might have the same name as your first-ever teacher. These are some of the traditional synchronicities. They might have happened but, if they did, it was rare. Most of the time, someone in the past, lived days that had very little “magic.”
But, today, in addition to any of the traditional synchronicities I just listed, we experience “coincidence” constantly. Since we funnel most of our thoughts through a machine that is spying on us, we are delivered synchronicities all of the time. If you buy a book about Elvis Presley online, you are bombarded with other books about Elvis, his family, his childhood, and his songs. Then, content (books, t-shirts, movies) about other famous musicians, like Willie Nelson, also land in your lap because the (advertising) gods know that you must be into that kind of thing.
There will come a time when we are used to these corporate coincidences. The youngest generations will not know anything else. Items and topics will follow us as much as we follow them. The store will always have exactly the right item at exactly the right time. When you shop for a car, you won’t only see more of those cars on the road, you will see them on your desk and in your palm.
Two points about this phenomenon:
Since they already know so much, people might grow to expect the biggest corporations to be omniscient, like a god. After a while, we might not mind the spying and we might just accept that, in the same way people believe that god knows your inner thoughts, the companies that dominate our media will also know everything you are thinking.
There is a strong possibility that we will grow numb to the wonder of coincidence and synchronicity. If divine timing is overtaken by corporate timing, then we won’t be surprised by coincidence. In fact, after a while, we will grow to expect every topic and sale item to appear in every arena in our lives. Eventually, it might be the rare occurrence when NO coincidence gains our attention, “I search for a blue hat and, yet, I haven’t seen another blue hat in a week. That’s strange.” So, this way, our view of coincidence will switch from being rare to being expected. That’s a big difference in our lives.
Our modern lives are chocked full of synchronicity, created joy by the divine but by the sophisticated mechanisms of corporate advertising. What was once considered magical has become a daily occurrence, fueled by the omniscient capabilities of corporations tracking our every move online. Through techniques like cookies, retargeting, and personalized advertising, corporations have developed immense power akin to godlike knowledge, shaping our experiences and perceptions all day long. As we become accustomed to these corporate-sponsored coincidences, the wonder of synchronicity may fade, replaced by an expectation of a custom-tailored existence. This will add coincidence and synchronicity to the growing list of ways that technology is replacing and magnifying life as we know it.
Burak Uzun is an award-winning writer and a Certified Meditation Teacher.
Burak Uzun also co-wrote a feature film called Team Marco, which was featured in over fifty film festivals around the globe and was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.
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