Open Your Eyes, But Don't Forget About Your Mind

I will probably sound extremely corny and say that this media blog has opened my eyes to all of the fallacies and tricks that the media inflicts on us. Honestly, that's what it has done.
I can no longer ride in the car or surf the internet without fixating on every advertisement I see or hear and immediately revealing the secrets, appeals, and messages that it is trying to impose. I totally thought about these ideas before, but now I completely understand the purpose of it. And now I realize that my demographic is the most vulnerable of them all! It's amazing how much is directed at teenagers. I almost feel like I'm the only one awake in a sleeping society when I see teenagers glued to their phones, getting brainwashed by the media.

I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that I only spend two hours a day with media. I guess I was thinking that the media was just technology. Whether I like it or not, I am in contact with the media at every hour of the day. It's not always a bad thing, since I have become more aware of the messages that are encouraged.

This was probably my favorite class I've taken in my schooling career because of how much applies to my everyday life. Everyday I come home with a new fact or theory about the media to tell my mom. Everyday I find myself applying these concepts to my social life, other classes, and my family.
Not only has this newfound awareness shown me why advertisements are the way they are, but the reason people are the way they are. Without knowing it, we are just like the media, in more ways than one. We imitate the media with the products and trends we are sold (feedback cycle), but also the way the media is always presenting something. The whole purpose of the word "personality" is to sell ourselves in a way that people will like us. We want people to buy our personality, and often change it for certain audiences, like the media does with its messages.

I believe everyone at this school, everyone in life, should take this class and have some awareness of the media. I doubt it will change anything. We will still keep consuming, we will still keep listening to the messages of the media. But this time, when we listen, we won't be fooled. We now know what they are doing, and that's all we can do.