My interactions with media began later in my life compared to most of my peers, or rather not as much as them. Due to my family living on a farm, we couldn't afford to pay for a t.v. as we had to spend so much of our time taking care of our animals. Therefore, we had one home phone and one computer for everyone. Because of this I would only see a screen twice a week and only played video games on the computer. However, when I ended up moving several times over the next few years my interaction with media became much more complicated. I went from consuming around 30 minutes to an hour of media to now consuming around 4- 5 hours a day. My life has drastically changed because of this. I would almost say I have an addiction as when I am without my phone I'm always grabbing my pocket and get bored extremely easily. This has also applied to my reading. When I am reading a newspaper, article, a book or even an article online I find myself forgetting what I am reading about if I'm not interested or if it's too long to read. Sometimes I become so lazy I can't read a page of writing without losing interest in what I'm reading.
This year, my awareness of the media I'm consuming daily has forever changed. After learning this year in our Critical Thinking class about the many advertising techniques used to get the user to buy their product I have been introduced to many of what I believe are harmful messages toward their target audience. Throughout the class, we have seen many of these messages, and learned about implicit and explicit messages. While I may have comprehended some of these explicit messages in a few advertisements I was not aware of the amount of implicit messages in the advertisements. Each of the three movies our class has watched surrounding the effect of media has made me realize how much more media affects our live's than I would ever have previously thought. I have realized how relevant this is to me today and it has forever changed my opinion of media. My media habits have surprisingly changed. At the beginning of this semester I would never have guessed a class could change my media habits. However, after learning about some techniques that multiple popular television shows use in order to portray harmful depictions of what society looks like I self-consciously started analyzing some of the t.v. shows I was watching. I became so disgusted with watching them that I have stopped watching them all together. These shows seem to have lost their entertainment value and seem to not have any positive effect on me. This is why the importance of media literacy needs to be emphasized to our younger generations. When more people become aware of the affect of media on our children media will not be as effective.
In my opinion media has negatively affected our society, specifically in women and preteens to teenagers. These people are forever affected by media's influence and has greatly affected the mental health of our youth and created a harmful environment in which we are supposed to thrive in today. However, being an educated consumer is very important too. Being an educated consumer allows us to separate what is truly worth our time and what isn't. When we are educated about what we consume we can make choices about what we consume and can certainly lead to a more positive relationship with media. This journal has helped me talk and communicate with several of my peers surrounding several topics that may be controversial yet I feel need to be talked about. They have created a space where I feel like I am heard and acknowledged. In conclusion I feel media is a powerful tool, it just depends on who is using it and what their motives are that will change how it affects us.
This year, my awareness of the media I'm consuming daily has forever changed. After learning this year in our Critical Thinking class about the many advertising techniques used to get the user to buy their product I have been introduced to many of what I believe are harmful messages toward their target audience. Throughout the class, we have seen many of these messages, and learned about implicit and explicit messages. While I may have comprehended some of these explicit messages in a few advertisements I was not aware of the amount of implicit messages in the advertisements. Each of the three movies our class has watched surrounding the effect of media has made me realize how much more media affects our live's than I would ever have previously thought. I have realized how relevant this is to me today and it has forever changed my opinion of media. My media habits have surprisingly changed. At the beginning of this semester I would never have guessed a class could change my media habits. However, after learning about some techniques that multiple popular television shows use in order to portray harmful depictions of what society looks like I self-consciously started analyzing some of the t.v. shows I was watching. I became so disgusted with watching them that I have stopped watching them all together. These shows seem to have lost their entertainment value and seem to not have any positive effect on me. This is why the importance of media literacy needs to be emphasized to our younger generations. When more people become aware of the affect of media on our children media will not be as effective.
In my opinion media has negatively affected our society, specifically in women and preteens to teenagers. These people are forever affected by media's influence and has greatly affected the mental health of our youth and created a harmful environment in which we are supposed to thrive in today. However, being an educated consumer is very important too. Being an educated consumer allows us to separate what is truly worth our time and what isn't. When we are educated about what we consume we can make choices about what we consume and can certainly lead to a more positive relationship with media. This journal has helped me talk and communicate with several of my peers surrounding several topics that may be controversial yet I feel need to be talked about. They have created a space where I feel like I am heard and acknowledged. In conclusion I feel media is a powerful tool, it just depends on who is using it and what their motives are that will change how it affects us.
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