Self Jamming

Self Jamming means taking the techniques and ideas of Culture Jamming and apply them to controlling and eliminating the external influences in your own life, rather than society as a whole.

Developed by XLogicX and dual_parallel, there is an episode of Antimeme on Self Jamming, which introduces the concept. 

Culture Jamming utilizes existing memes and media of pop culture in creative and subversive ways in order to alter the messages being sent by corpolitical sources to something deemed more appropriate or constructive. In other words, using the corpolitical memes against themselves in order to limit the damage these memes create, or even better to change them into constructive forces.

Likewise, in Self Jamming, the idea is to alter the negative effects of all these influences into the neutral or positive range (as relative to your own life). 

You are more than likely assaulted with a constant barrage of various attempts to affect your thoughts and behaviour from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep. Logos, brands and catch phrases--ads and commercials, peer pressure (from others being affected by the same memes), radio jingles, pushy salespeople, billboards, political groups, religious groups--everybody seems to want a slice of you--your mind, your resources, your time, your vote, your money, your attention, your distraction.

Many of us develop a kind of natural resistance to this sort of thing. Being subjected to so much of this stuff for so long (likely your entire life), it begins to all seem the same. Eventually, many of us simply learn to 'tune it out'. Surfing the web, your eyes dart right around the ads on the page, never focusing on the ads themselves--automatic selective attention. 

So, you've already got that going for you. But, the thing is, some of that crap still gets through--and anyway, it's pretty much all going straight to your subconscious, and god knows how it'll be processed there.

All of this overwhelming input causes a constant background hum in our lives, and sometimes it's harder to block out than others. The idea of Self Jamming creates a filter with which to screen this constant input for relevancy and truth.

By stopping and asking yourself certain questions about things about an input, you are able to rate the input. Why is this person/ad/book/etc telling me that I want/need/should do this thing? How do I feel about this thing? How do I feel about the source making the suggestion? If I say yes, what will this mean for me (in terms of cost, life change, effects on family and friends,etc)? If I say no?

Are there dirty tricks being used? Plays on the emotions, sense of duty, sense of honor, desire for security? In short, what do I want? I--me--what do I really want?

Another tactic for controlling these outside influences in your life is simply to limit them--don't watch as much tv, read something constructive or uplifting or educational instead of pop culture and empty entertainment. When you go shopping, wear headphones so you don't have to hear ads and jingles and sales pitches. Take some time in your day to just sit and think about yourself, who you really are, and what sort of influences have entered your life.

If you consciously identify a source of attempted influence, it often loses its power over you, just because you are conscious of it.

In short, Self Jamming is anything that controls the negative effects of the corpolitical memes designed to control you. Make yourself immune, or even better--take these attempts to control your mind, and draw strength from them, instead.