As our ability to access said media grows every day more people have the information to formulate opinions, but much of the audience just sticks to what they have read and expressed that opinion verbatim. What part of the media has arguably been most effective in influencing our culture?
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Media influence on culture
In Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman mentions at the end of the first chapter, " Our media are our metaphors. Our metaphors create the content of our culture". Postman is saying that the media shapes our culture and what our culture is focused on. In this modern age, a lot of our culture is influenced by social media. Influencers' popularity leads to opinions made by them to be held higher than others. This can be very bad for a society as it starts to eliminate the ability to think for ourselves and leave it to others to form opinions for us.
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Our media has changed us to focus on image rather than the authenticity of an individual. With trends and aesthetics to serve as a basis for our society, image is prioritized because our natural response is to judge a person's appearance before anything else. I'm afraid we are becoming a function of other's preferences and opinions rather than our own. I agree, that with social media presence being the main factor that influences us, we are susceptible to idolizing another person's notions believing they are better. I see why most take what they see is right and voice it as their own; it's like when you learn something and use it to share with others, promote interest, so people can think alike. I wonder if this is where social media's "toxicity" also thrives. Having different opinions obstructs the community as a whole. Instead, the opinion with most followers are destined to win. We are the followers, but maybe only just that. Without power in social media, it is a hard place to be just you.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about how the higher popularity means a more validated opinion. This results in kind of mob mentality. I believe that this can be harmful in public discourse as if you disagree with a said opinion you have to face a mob of people and not individuals. The mob eliminates individual thinking and can make it impossible to speak up without receiving heavy criticism or can cause the discourse to get violent.
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