Reflection

     I consume media a lot. During passing period, I listen to music. After school I usually watch some TV and check my social media accounts. The music between passing period calms me and allows me to escape a little. But it sometimes takes away from my experience with my friends and seeing what is outside and around me. Checking my social media account after school occasionally takes away from my time to do homework. The pictures on social media and the words said influence how I see the world. Because the images on social media are edited extensively. When I look up at the world and don’t see that I get slightly disappointed. A good example of this is the nighttime sky. On my Instagram feed, there are several photos of the night sky with thousands of stars plainly seen. But even when I went up to Tahoe on a cloudless night, I could not see that many stars and it was a little disappointing. Media warps the reality of the real world, making you think they are one way when they are actually another. 

      Being aware of my media consumption allows me to see what the advertisers are trying to make you think. But also see what they are about and what they are trying to cover up. Listening to the radio in the morning, with the commercials that play in between songs, I can hear and identify the things that the advertisers want you to think which allows me to identify if the product is actually worth it. 

       It is important to have media literacy and be an educated consumer so that you are about to identify the various things in the media that aren’t true. Being able to understand what is in the media saves you from falling into the media hole. It allows you to see the truth of the reality that media is warping. This allows you to form your own ideas about a certain topic without being completely influenced by the thoughts and opinions of the person behind the piece of media you are consuming. Being informed that the pictures in the media are edited to form that perfect picture allows you to recognize your own beauty. Because you are not comparing yourself to an impossible standard. This also allows you to identify the parts of the media that are degrading to a certain group. Once you identify these, you can stop endorsing these pars of the media. An educated consumer is less likely to fall to the advertising techniques used by advertisers. They are less likely to buy unnecessary things. They are more likely to see the warped reality that the media presents them and the true reality that it covers up. 

      I think that media is good. However, the way people use media is not good. Media allows us to be informed and connected to each other. But because people warp reality and present in a convincing way they make media negative. Media can make people depressed about their body and the reality of the world because what they see is not as great as what is in the media. Sometimes even what they see in the media is worse than what they see in the real world. But because of our dependency on the media for information about things, it is hard to avoid these warped realities. To fix this person should just present the facts of a certain topic. And either not have their opinion presented with the facts or explicitly say that this is their opinion. But before this can happen, we as consumers must educate ourselves on how to identify the faults and the warped reality that media presents us. Without being aware of the negative effect, the media has on us. We will keep consuming it in the same way, which puts out the same outcome. People accepting this warped reality as truth and never seeing the truth.