This writer's perspective
Are media factors such as television, magazines, newspapers, etc. contributors to who we become as adults? It's quite possible, even probable that they play a huge part in the shaping of our personalities.
Children emulate what they see
Take television, for example. It's clear that young children are drawn into the fantasy world of television. They tend to emulate what they see. So what happens when you show a child a violent program? Will that be influential in their temperament as they grow older? Will they, in fact, grow to be an angry person later on in life? Does it teach a child to get angry and use violence instead of dealing with their emotions in a constructive manner? How big a part does television play?
Make-believe qualifications
Magazines are another form of media. Although in print, they still have influence on how people think and act. Magazines are not only full of articles, they're stuffed with advertisements. The advertisements can have an even greater impact than the articles themselves.
By thumbing through a magazine, from cover to cover, we learn what is accepted from us and what is not. As individuals, we learn what is expected from us by society. We see that people are supposed to be thin, beautiful, glamorous, and happy. Whether we realize it or not, our subconscious mind picks up on those images. We may intellectually know that not every person fits into that same mold. Our brains tell us that it is a ridiculous concept. But our subconscious tells us that there is something wrong with us if we do not strive to meet these make believe qualifications.
The writer's opinion
Newspaper is a tricky one. Yes we receive valuable information from a newspaper. It informs us about what is going on in our world. But how much of the information is really fact and how much is speculation? How much of what we read in a newspaper is merely the writer trying to sway us in the direction of their own opinion? It's definitely something to think about.
Is what we read in a newspaper a giant helping of the writer's opinion, garnished
with a small amount of factual information? If this is the case, it makes it pretty difficult to locate the boundary between what we truly believe and what is being fed to us. Do we, as individuals, really know what our own opinions are? Do we know why we are a Democrat or a Republican? Is there a solid reason why we believe drugs are bad and religion is good? Is it simply a matter of majority rules?
Most of us do not research the information we receive through the media. We just expect that it has already been done for us. Why else would it be in the newspaper or on the six o clock news? But maybe if we began to explore what we see and read more carefully, we would find that we have different opinions entirely. Maybe our individual personalities would be reshaped. If that were to happen, what might that do for society as a whole?
