It's weird now thinking about how clueless I was before this class, especially this unit. I now realize that media surrounds, no matter where we go. Walking around town, there are billboards and flyers and posters, all with the same goal in mind: to try to get us to buy what they're advertising. If you're playing a game on your iPhone, there are always those annoying little ads that pop up trying to get your attention. Can we ever escape this world of media?
I've found that the answer, sadly, is no. However, we do have the power to stop being affected by the media. I remember when we first got our lists about the needs and techniques advertisers use to sell their product. They attempt to satisfy the needs for sex, for affiliation, to nurture, for guidance, to agress, to achieve, to dominate, for prominence, for attention, for autonomy, to escape, to feel safe, for aesthetic sensations, to satisfy curiosity, and our physiological needs by using the techniques of avante garde, facts and figures, weasel words, magic ingredients, patriotism, diversion, transfer/association, plain folks, snob appeal, bribery, testimonial, wit and humor/sex appeal, simple solutions, glittering generalities, bandwagon, repetition, time pressure/exigency, and gestalt. Thinking about it now, there have been so many times that I've let media satisfy my needs with those techniques.
What we have to do to prevent ourselves from being affected by media is stop and consider what exactly the media (the long commercials, the paper ads, etc.) are really trying to get us to feel. An expert in the documentary The Persuaders said that as humans, we are eighty percent emotional and twenty percent intellectual. Before we decide that we just HAVE to have those new shoes, that new computer, or that new phone, we need to think. Yes, that means using that wonderful organ we have up in our heads. Since taking this class, I've started to deal with the affects of media by asking, "Do I really need this?". Asking myself this question, I've learned that most of the time the answer is no.
I've come to realize that not all media is bad though, I mean Taylor Swift songs are perfect for breakups and things like that, and All-American Reject's song Move Along is my motto song (if that's a thing). Media connects with us in a way that nothing else can, and I think that that is one of the reasons we are so absorbed in it. However, because media can take such a big toll on us emotionally, we have to be aware and educated as consumers. If we are not careful and thoughtful, media can consume us until we become shop-a-holics, always wanting and wanting, never pleased with what we have.
Making us buy things isn't media's only job, though. The media puts a picture in our head of the perfect woman or the perfect man, and that is what we try to become. Not only must we stay critical about the commercials, but also the magazines. Who has the right to tell us how much we're supposed to weigh? It's impossible to say what the perfect weight is, because everyone's body is different. If we fall under the trap of media's social pressure, we can easily become anorexic, bulimic, and other unhealthy things our bodies don't deserve. We'll start getting plastic surgery everywhere just to look like those models we see. The funny thing is that these people we are trying to become aren't even real. At least one thing has been done to them to make them look more appealing. We have to remember that those people are not truly themselves in those photographs or commercials.
Media has the power to trick and deceive us, but also the power to strengthen and motivate us. It's important that we stay critical and question the media we are exposed to, otherwise even the lies we hear will sound like truth. Thanks to my new knowledge about media, I have started to question what I once thought was true, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my days.
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