1F25 Blog Response 1: Media Impact on Others

When discussing modern society, it is quite evident that there have been considerable changes in the standpoints regarding social media and its impact on society.  After reading and analyzing over ten blogs about how mass media affected one’s world, I came to realize that there was a consensus among these blogs. The consensus is that mass media is negative in one way or another. I am an advocate of social media but after reading their opposing viewpoints, they got me to look at this topic through a different lens and in turn, I found myself agreeing with many points that were made. 

Melissa Froese mentioned the following: “Without the media, like Twitter or Facebook, some people wouldn’t know what is going on in the world” http://melissasblogview.wordpress.com/. Although these forms of social media do allow news to spread a lot quicker and to a mass amount of people, it does not mean that if you weren’t a part of these mass communication sites you would not know what is going on in the world. I have friends who are not on Facebook, Twitter, etc that are still up to date on world issues. That being said, they do use other websites (such as CNN or online newspapers) to get information. This proves to me that one cannot completely avoid the use of media.  

Katie Flynn had a different position on why technology has negatively affected society. She said: “I feel that all of this technology is terrible for our social skills and has really minimized face to face communication” http://mediapopculturechick.wordpress.com/. Upon reflection, I strongly believe that face to face communication has decreased in our lives. We are so quick to email, text, etc., instead of picking up the phone and talking to someone. Another example that came to mind is at my daughter’s school. The students are allowed to stay in during recesses to access online games instead of playing, socializing or being active on the playground. Katie also sparked my interest when she goes into detail about texting while driving. She talked about car crashes and how many lives are lost because of the way we use technology. The ignorance of people who are using technology is disturbing to me. 

Another blog I read by Alexandra Deyman states that: “Using the Internet for school or work purposes are useful, but I am almost positive everyone has drifted off the task at hand and has found himself or herself on a social networking site without even noticing!  Again this proves why mass media can be negative.” http://alexandradeyman.wordpress.com/. I agree with this, as I have been a culprit of this myself.  Through my readings of blogs, it is clear that the majority of people are tied to social media and network sites. Although there are positives of using social media there are plenty of negatives that come along with it.

As previously mentioned mass media has a vast impact on society; whether it is positive or negative. My final thought for this evaluation is that although as a society we heavily rely on social media site, I would hope that people use them for what they are intended for rather than be dominated by them. 

1F25 Post 1: Media Impact

     Our daily life is based on different sources of mass media and its effects, which controls and modifies our life. Media is a mean of communication such as radio broadcasting, television, advertisement, newspapers and magazines that spreads to massive numbers of people. The mass media composes our framing environment such as advertisement of a new product line or a poster that advertises a new Ford SUV.

     Nowadays, there are various methods and approaches that mass media could be approached. I would like to discuss two ways in which mass media affected my personal world. The first example is television. The messages children are internalizing from watching television is forming their sense of reality. Based on my personal experiences with my daughter, I have come to realize how this form of media affects her both positively and negatively. For example, watching different shows has a negative influence on my daughter by reinforcing gender roles, stereotypes and depicting risky behaviours. On the flip side, it has positive effects on my daughter by exposing her to different cultures and values and provides us with the opportunity to discuss different subjects or situations that she has viewed. 

     The second way mass media has affected my surrounding is how the web has developed from the late 1980s when I was in High School till today when I enrolled in University as a mature student. I remember in grade 11 I did a presentation on AIDS. This was done on a Bristol Board poster paper instead of a PowerPoint slide show. Furthermore, the research for the information was done by using the school library and/or the public library. However, with the advancement of the web and the discovery of many search engines such as Yahoo, Bing, and Google, my most recent 2013 research about Holistic Healing involved exploring the web, gathering information and designing a PowerPoint. This shows the dramatic development the world experienced in terms of the internet and web functions. The web is a tool where we can find information and images to almost any topic. Based on my experience, I discovered that this tool has its advantages and disadvantages. The information is available to be easily accessed anytime and one site leads to another without the need of a hard copy. The required information can be selected and printed. But this information may not be reliable and the use of actual books is vanishing as the web is developing. Steve Jobs mentioned in an article "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.” 

     As it can be visible, mass media can affect our daily life, elevate social evolution and enhance thinking skills.