THE DIAMONIQUE SHIMMER

Take the time to study the presentational style of a Home Shopping television program.

You’ll notice some visual engagement going on. You'll see big changes in the visual field as products are rotated and demonstrated in close-up. Graphics are constantly changing on the periphery of vision. But engagement alone hardly explains the appeal of this type of programming. What’s really important is that viewer/shoppers achieve a sense of efficacy from Home Shopping.

If you can’t make something, the next best thing is to buy something. If you call the number on the screen you can create something out of nothing. When we shop, we put money on the counter, something appears, and we now hold an object where before there was only air. It’s not nearly as satisfying as creating something ourselves, usually not even as satisfying as cleaning up our desks. That’s why people who use shopping to find a sense of efficacy have to shop so much. It is also why consumerism tends to leave people feeling unsatisfied and alienated.

Home Shopping works at a very low level of all three of our ways to make the brain happy – efficacy, engagement, and affect. It’s interesting to note where efficacy and affect come together here. Most home shopping networks have live hosts taking phone calls from viewers. The hosts are friendly, encouraging, and in general make people feel like they are part of a community. You call in and you become part of the television world. That makes you especially real. Home Shopping provides positive social interaction and a way of being effective in the objective world. Some of us may look down our noses at Home Shopping, but the positive feelings it engenders in its audience should not be forgotten.