The Ads on Your Phone Are Making You Mow Your Lawn | Gage Martin | TEDxHunting Valley

Why is your quality as a neighbor measured in inches of grass? Because two developers in the 1800s told you so. Gage Martin follows the false need from the suburban lawn to product placement, the beauty industry, and the manufactured need for constant connection, and offers a rule of thumb for spotting the needs somebody sold you. Gage Martin is a senior at Louisville High School and president of a speech and debate team he has competed on for seven years, ranking among the top competitors in Ohio. He is a member of the Ohio Department of Health's Teen Wellness Team and the creator of the nationally recognized Duck Game, digging into corporate influence on culture. His talk, “The Ads on Your Phone Are Making You Mow Your Lawn,” starts with his neighbor Mr. George and a question: why is your quality as a neighbor measured in inches of grass? The answer runs from two 19th-century developers who marketed the lawn as status, through philosopher Herbert Marcuse's idea of false needs, to product placement, the beauty industry, and social media's manufactured need for constant connection, and ends with a rule of thumb for spotting the needs somebody sold you. He still mows every Sunday. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx