Ninz

Great one, Caitlin! On the one hand I think you’re absolutely right and sometimes it scares me! I mean I don’t watch much TV – my main media is the internet. I listen to music, watch tv series and also read the newspaper online! It’s just so simple.

But the influence you’re under is not that simple… how often did I catch myself thinking “Oh let’s check what my friend X is doing – let’s go on facebook!” or “I really wanna have the summer season over cause I want to watch my favorite TVs shows again” It’s like an addiction – you’re so used to it that it’d be hard without it!

But on the other hand I wouldn’t have a job if there weren’t the media. I’m working in a media company – we create media, we use media… and I’m getting payed for this.

It’s a mixed blessing…

Caity

That sounds like a totally awesome job. Very interesting perspective, I totally dig it!

Stephanie

wow that’s crazy, i guess ive always been somewhat aware but not to the level that when you think about it the media reallly does have a sense of ‘control’ over our lives and society now a day. I guess we just have to make sure it doesn’t take over our lives, i think it’s really about striking a balance in the things you do but i think that’s harder than we all think it is because media is everywhere..anyways great article!

Ghost

(imho)
The one thing I find most interesting is how mainstream media can globally set the standard for what we consider “normal” and acceptable behavior. It can define the moral standards of an entire generation through little more than a 30 minute reality show or sitcom.
Think about how difficult it is for the young people trying to define themselves. Everybody wants to “fit in” somewhere and the media gives them mutable parameters for individual classification.
While the cyclic nature of trends presents the opportunity for personal redefinition (i.e. Every 4-6 years a new vampire craze turns ‘goth’ from lame and blasé, to cool and edgy), the need to +1 the last permutation forces sometimes dangerous excessive behavior.
More violence, more promiscuity, more apathy, more suffering.
Positive media role models (like this site’s founder:) have the inverse affect as well, though not quite to the same degree.

In summation, “be yourself” translates more to “be the influence you most admire and want to be like” than anything else.

Ricter55

When my childhood family first moved to the Washington DC area (many moves ago) I was entering the 9th grade. They had just completed a brand new high-school for kids our age whose families lived in Rockville, or Potomac, MD. This meant that we had brand new faculty/teachers, so we as a school came up with our own educational identity.

One of my social studies teachers was a “free-thinker” who liked to question just about everything. She took us on a journey of introspection into what we already thought we “knew” or “society” wanted us to believe, and helped us unlock some healthy tools for processing what we saw as media bombardment. At that time there wasn’t much of an an Internet, nor social media sites, but there were TV commercials, billboards and print ads everywhere, and music, art, and yes… t-shirts. We decided that all media was an attempt to program or even brainwash us into buying, thinking, saying, doing, going, avoiding, voting, and supporting this or that. So, we developed a mindset that resisted media influence by considering it to be a questionable adversary in a battle of wills with us.

If one stops thinking of media as inherently true, as an authority, or believing they wouldn’t lie “publicly”… (would they?) it becomes easy to view/experience media without being “influenced.” However, picking up catch phrases or quoting something innocuous is not really any kind of a worry or problem. Every region of the country (and world) and each “generation” has their own colloquialisms and “fads.” The key is to be aware when you are experiencing media that it has an objective and you do not have to let it sway or influence you. You also do not have to distrust it entirely, nor totally disregard it, just develop a healthy skepticism.

Then again, there is the subconscious mind… OMG!

Susana/Susy

Omg Caitlin I loved your post!! Everything you said is so true I’m so like you that I use media with almost everything whether it be with movies, tv, books, ipod, etc. everything in my life seems to revolve around Media especially my computer given that I go to school on it lol.

Media is a bit scary though & to know that it can have harmful effects in so many ways like to know that almost half the United States is obese & it’s due to the fact that because of television or computers is just a tad like wow! So I just hope that it doesn’t get any worse. Even though I’m part of the majority who do use media all the time lol. I will say that I wish I was part of a time where we didn’t have cell phones & it was the simple letters or simpler ways I liked that you had more communication with other ppl.