Media

The following is an excerpt from my journal entry for a philosophy course:
When deciding to take this class I wasn’t quite sure of what it entailed, but I decided that that element of mystery would make for an interesting philosophy class. I am studying it because there seems to be a growing influence that the media possesses over our everyday lives. I guess I always knew that we were being continuously bombarded by media, but there is an extreme to which it has been taken too by my peers and various members in society. There seems to be a lack of individuality and creativity today in my personal opinion. Everyone wants to fit in and “go with the flow”. Who determines this particular flow exactly? The media, the pop culture and everything in between dictates how we should live our everyday lives. Whether or not that is a positive thing is highly questionable to me. I don’t see many individuals reaching out to make a statement or believe in a cause anymore. Fitting in, in fact, seems to be the epitome on everyone’s chart. Media not only defines our clothes and music but our thoughts. News broadcasting networks are now being owned by the government so what is being shown has already been decided for us. We consume a massive amount of media on a daily basis. It is quite rare that we are not: on the internet (facebook, myspace, twitter), attached to our ipods, watching television or texting. These mediums all serve to alter our thinking, if we do in fact do that anymore. For example, MTV has mastered the art of influencing its viewers. Their newest hell on earth is “Jersey Shore” which while mildly entertaining shows exactly what is wrong with society today. It focuses on a group of Italian’s (your guidos and guidettes) trying to live up to what media has defined admissible for them. They have clearly watched too many episodes of the Sopranos and My Cousin Vinny, and from that have made their attempt to permanently define “ a guido/guidette”. It is a reality show and has been quite the rave since its debut. From this show, we will now see the growing trend of over tanning, faux Chanel bags and a new addiction to the gym. This is one example where one show has managed to encourage and broaden an already faulty sub culture of young adults.