Week Six | The Final Snippet of My Media Blog: Now That I'm a Relatively Educated Human in Regards to Media...

     Today is the day that I finally retire from my media blog. When I first started this blog, it was merely a homework assignment that I had to fulfill the requirements for in order to get full credit. I freaked out over what to talk about because I thought there would have been nothing to talk about. But unexpectedly, I found it quite effortless and painless to find things to discuss. (Of course, they were all things that interested me--mainly Korean-related things.)

     Thanks to the horrible memory I have, I honestly cannot remember how I interacted with media before I started this blog. I believe I can confidently say that the amount of time I spend with exposure to media has not changed--however, my behavior and attitudes towards the pieces of media I see have definitely changed a lot. There has not been one day that I have not gone without analyzing a certain piece of media. I find myself approaching any advertisements with both skepticism and cynicism. Now that I know a little about how the media works, I can't help but behave this way. I just end up blurting out random advertising techniques at different commercials when I recognize them.

     There is a great reward in being educated in the world of media. Because I have learned so much about the inner workings of media, I can understand all the assumptions, values, connotations, etc., that form the culture of the source of media. By knowing all the different techniques that advertisers use, we can actually properly comprehend everything they are saying about us as a society under the surface. Many of the words and stories that are delivered through media have been manipulated, and so through this, our minds can be easily controlled. The real thing is never portrayed accurately.

Now, I see all the subliminal messages that companies are brainwashing our minds with. Every advertisement, every marketing campaign has an ulterior motive. Advertisers condition our minds with all these implicit messages. We're never good enough, or strong enough, or successful enough, or pretty enough. Our lives are boring. They have to be exciting. Be adventurous. Take risks. Even if we give in to an advertisement in an attempt to become that perfect person, there will always be the next advertisement that brings you back down. The vicious cycle begins once again.

     With my departing from this blog, I would have expected to feel some sort of emotion that verged on sentimentality. But I honestly don't feel much of anything. Perhaps it just hasn't hit me yet, or perhaps this blog truly was just another assignment for me. But regardless of what the blog itself meant to me, I truly have learned a lot throughout the time period of my Critical Thinking course. Despite all of this, I don't think I ever would have the time and dedication towards such a project. But what I will continue to do is to regularly use the knowledge that I have gained from my zero period in daily life in order to have a solid awareness of the motives behind advertising campaigns and the implicit messages that come with them. I know I can never escape the shackles that media has placed on us consumers. So many advertisements have been presented to us, each new advertisement created with the intent of breaking through the clutter. I can't control what is exposed to me. But what I do have control over is how I react to these advertisements. With active awareness of what is being exposed to us, we have the power to make the media not as strong as it can be. We don't have to let this external force determine what we are.