Reflection

Retaining this blog for the past couple of weeks has changed my social media habits for the better. I still consume lots of media- mostly instagram, snapchat, twitter, and netflix. I view the posts of others that I hardly know, derive my knowledge of current events from outlets on the snapchat explore page, and view the weekly viral comedic tweets that make a brief impression on our culture. This impacts me in the way that I feel unified with the community of people also engaging in the same type of media. Social media has the extraordinary ability to connect people, which makes me feel included when in reality it is me often being apart of widespread marketing plots. 

While I still spend far too much time engaged in social media instead of viewing life in the present, I am far more aware of the effect that the media has on me, and am able to restrict its influence. For instance, if I spend 10 minutes scrolling through instagram, I am not brainwashed by the digital representation of others' lives but aware that I am using that type of media to procrastinate. In addition, I realized that the headlines I am viewing on Snapchat are not necessary the most truthful because the writers were very focused on reeling in viewers to their story. In short, I have developed an eye for separating the culture, trends and news of social media from the marketing techniques implemented for maximum profit. 

I believe this type of media literacy is very vital knowledge that everyone should have so that the can engage in a large part of our culture without being persuaded to make purchases or personal changes that lead purchases. In this era, the distinction between entertainment media and marketing is hardly distinct, and while consuming it, many are persuaded on a subconscious level. Media is a platform that reaches millions of people, and that speed of information is very unique to this generation, Therefore, this generation should seize the opportunity of having a fast, sweeping flow of information and use media as an instrument of change. Bigotry and ignorance as well as social injustice are still very prevalent in our society, but they do not have to be. If everyone's reality assumptions were altered to include these problems our society continues to face, there would inevitably be added support for these reforms that need to be implemented in our society. Media should not be centered around marketing, but rather to be used as a tool to advocate for righteousness. 

On a less serious note, media should continue to be used to connect people over shared interests, senses of humour, and compassion. While keeping this journal, I was able to share to (even though it may be an incredibly small community of internet users) the events and phenomenons that I thought were profound, funny, and fulfilling to my interests. I was able to discuss occurrences related to my favorite TV shows, my sport, and social movements I was in support of. I felt good to communicate my thoughts on these events because I was able to untangle my perceptions of media from the marketing techniques implemented in them by analyzing its effect. There is so much more to our lives than the capitalist motives of major corporations, and we should be able to separate the millions of accounts of our culture in the media from that. Media should be implemented purely to share funny, heart-warming, shocking, or interesting phenomenons between people. Marketing has already used media to cause enough psychological manipulation to cause internal conflicts and rifts in social dynamics, and its time we liberate our media from the marketers using it as a ploy. Let's take our media back and use it to enlighten the human spirit.