It's Time to Sign Out

     Before taking this critical thinking class, I thought I was aware of the thousands of media messages thrown at us on a daily basis. I thought I had it all figured out by blocking out many of the bland messages and filtering the ones that I liked. I assumed that I was media literate, but after taking this class where we dug much deeper than I would ever go on my own, I found that I was definitely media illiterate. I thought I was numb, if not immune, to all media that surrounds us each day. Unfortunately, there is no way around it.
     The amount of media I consume impacts my life in ways that I'm not quite aware of. But I do know that the media influences some of my opinions, the way I dress, the music I like, and some of my expectations about life.

     This class has made me realize all the explicit and implicit messages the media is attempting to tell us. Instead of the messages passing right through me, I find myself instinctively analyzing them and trying to determine the message and the messenger. So I think it's safe to say that now I am media literate. Being more aware of my media consumption definitely changes my interactions with media. I'll never look at a print ad or watch a commercial the same way again without calling out its flaws, appeals, or advertising techniques. For example, I can pick out the techniques or appeals and say what the target market is. I don't know if that has ruined the media for me or made it better, because I won't fall for the faulty, unrealistic messages it is trying to send us.
     I feel that analyzing the media has made me more critical towards it, because I've found that each ad has another message to it that isn't explicitly told to us. Keeping this media blog has helped me uncover these hidden messages. The media is never quite as it seems. Each blog post I wrote and each advertisement I came across made me realize that the media is basically lying to us. But most people usually don't realize that, because most do not sit down for thirty minutes to analyze the meaning and implicit messages of one bit of media. Nevertheless, this blog helped me understand the media much better and why it does the things that it does to reach out to viewers. This blog drew me into another realm that I thought I was immune to, and it exposed me to the marketing and advertising that I never would have paid much attention to before this class. 

     I realized how powerful the media is when it comes to warping and defining our values. I'm not saying that the media is evil or anything (although in some instances it can be), but we just need to know that the media isn't in charge of us. It's our job to analyze, or at least realize that the reality it's presenting to us isn't all that real. We can't accept everything the media throws at us. We and the media are responsible for our consumption and understood messages. We can't put all the blame on the media for changing the way we view reality, because it is only a mere reflection of all of us.
     It is important to have media literacy and to be an educated consumer, because we don't want to fall into the trap of following blindly and wasting our money away. The same reasoning goes for being an educated consumer. It helps us realize what is being advertised to us and why that is. If we become more educated, advertisements will have a harder time targeting us to buy their product Sure, it's okay to buy stuff--that's what ads want us to do, but there is a limit.
     I would like to say that I detest the media because of all the lies, unrealistic assumptions, and expectations. I would like to say that because of that, I will cut back on my media consumption to save myself from the constant stream of media messages. I would also like to say that my media consumption habits will drastically change for the better, but to be honest, I will probably still consume the same amount as I did before taking this class. Media is part of life and society. We can't get around it, and it's always going to be here, getting stronger and stronger. I honestly like getting my daily dose of TV and Internet. That might be true, but I know that I'll be more skeptical and tentative when it comes to the thousands of messages media presents us with. I know that I will be more aware of it and not let all the messages pass right through me as they did before.
     Thank you, critical thinking for making me understand the media so much better and realize that the media isn't all as it seems. Now, there's only so much media that I can take in one day, but signing out is just the start of cutting back on my media consumption. 

Elementary School: Then and Now

     On Friday, I went to an elementary school to help out at the school's carnival. As I walked on campus, I was brought back to happy and easygoing childhood memories. It seemed like nothing had changed--there were still kids screaming and running around the blacktop. But as I was setting up for the carnival and standing at my booth watching the kids hurry past me, I knew that elementary school was definitely not as I remembered. What especially caught my eye was how the elementary school girls were dressed. I saw short shorts, flat sandals, flashy tank tops, and colorful t-shirts. Girls walked by with their group of friends carry around a nice, thick wallet containing what I could only guess to be $2 and "caught-you-being-good" tickets. I am usually a bad judgement of age, but the way these girls were dressed made it so much harder for me to guess what grade they were in. They looked like sixth graders, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually in fourth.
     When I was in elementary school, I remember basically wearing  the same thing everyday: jeans and a plain t-shirt. What is up with this generation? Is it that these girls grew up in a new age where the only thing they know is a life surrounded by the media? I think so.
     In Miss Representation, the narrator was worried about the life her daughter would have in a generation that is heavily influenced by the media. Did her daughter have a chance against the media without changing who she really is? Today, I can understand how the media impacts girls' lives. In my last blog post, I discussed the effects of the media on teenage girls, but now I would like to talk about its effects on young girls.
     From the moment they are brought into the world, girls are surrounded by media that is constantly throwing "acceptable" and "ideal" people, clothing, and lifestyle at them. Do we ever catch a break? Even TV shows and movies explicitly tell us what kind of life we should have and how we should dress. And if that's not how we roll, then we will probably be ridiculed because we choose not to conform to society's standards. No wonder girls feel pressured to change to fit the ideal girl in society's eye. Thanks a lot, media.
     So all forms of the media is shaping how young girls view themselves and how they choose to present themselves as well. I'm not saying that it's terrible for them to dress older than they are, but they don't have to grow out of their childhood so fast by reaching so far into the future. It's what is presented to these girls on a daily basis that influences how they dress. I've sat through enough episodes of Jesse and Liv and Maddie on Disney Channel that I can only guess that those shows are the base of young girls' change into dressing like teenagers. Not only do they focus too much on looks, but they also address relationships and worrying about other peoples' judgments--sure, like those things are so important. So now it's easy for me to understand why young girls are dressing the way they do. This is exactly the impact media makes even on younger girls as discussed in Miss Representation. Media shows us what is acceptable and expected in society, so girls try to fit the reality that is presented to them.
     Overall, the documentary made a strong argument about how girls are being influenced by the media. I never realized how big a role the media took in shaping how we view ourselves and others, and this documentary changed the way I look at the media and the messages it tries to send us. I liked how this documentary gave the women a voice, so they got to express how they really felt about this issue. I know that the main idea how women are affected by the media, but I feel like men are affected in the same ways. We see the influence more in girls, because we are more expressive of how we feel, so we can all see the effects. We are a reflection of the messages in the media. By the end of the documentary, I was thinking about the effects on men. We don't see the effects as easily as women, because the media makes it seem like men are weak for being emotional. Instead, they are taught to suppress their emotions at a young age, so it's harder for us to see how the media is shown in them. Either way, this documentary stated that we are all affected.
     As for me, I would like to say that I am real and not another reproduction of the media. But I feel like that would be hard to say, because the media has burrowed its way into our life one way or another. I don't particularly stay up with the latest trends, nor do I wear whatever my heart desires. I'd like to think that I grab something off the rack because I like it, but let's face it, I probably picked it up because I knew that's what was "in" and "acceptable." I like to do my own things, and I can get a kick out of the latest trends, so I'd like to say that I don't conform so easily to fit the media. I guess there's in in-between of me versus the commercialization of me. It's hard to tell sometimes, because life and the media seems to have morphed into one giant blob, so it's difficult to separate real from reproduction.