Influence of the Mass-Media in today's society?

[Stress]

This has been on my mind for quite a while now, and I'm curious to hear other people's opinions.

In our society, we're very exposed to the media all the time. We watch TV, we surf the Internet, and so and so forth. For people with a certain age, that might not be a problem.

But what about the younger members of our society? I mean, children watch cartoons from a very very early age. What do they see? Violence and death. Yes, people might argue, reality is not shown, and it doesn't affect the child, but I don't think so. It's about the intention, the thought behind the action. Even though it might be a 413215-headed dragon with 17 eyes on every head, and 235245 legs, it still wants to kill and hurt other creatures/people around it. The easiest manner for children to learn is repetition. Of course, they won't become whatever creature they see, but they will begin to think and act the way they see!
Is this what we really want? What are we "feeding" our followers? Aren't we putting their mental health in danger for the sake of entertainment?

Also, what about our adults? Coming back from work, what do most people do? Maybe have something to eat, and then, what? They just set themselves in front of the television or the computer, in order to "relax". The fact that most people's lives are governed by a routine, and are highly sedentary is a major issue nowadays, and, in my opinion, the media has big part to play in this.

The Internet helps us get connected, it helps us communicate in ways we couldn't have imagined possible, 20 or 30 years ago. But in fact, there's more depression amongst young people nowadays than ever before, and people are feeling more and more lonely.

Isn't it just wrong? Yes, this appears to be the inevitable future; (as a side note, I am not questioning the advantages of the Internet), that's where everyone is heading to, but is that what we really want? What is the real side of the matter? Are we closer to each other by being informed on everything that is going on in the world real-time, and by communicating in an instant? Isn't the loneliness people feel in great numbers these days more relevant?

And regarding the children: what are we actually growing here? Mankind strives for world peace, and yet, we're in for a disturbed, violent new generation.

I'd like to end my post with this:
Code: Select all

I might not have expressed everything in the way I wanted, but I hope you understand what I meant.

I'm curious to see what your views are on the matter.
Thank you for your time reading this, and, possibly, answering.

[PuppetOfGaea]

Wewt, I know the guys who put that video together! Well, as a Sociology major (along with English and Psychology), I can assure you that mass media has a great effect. The question your essentially posing is "Is our society effected by society?". The answer to this is obvious, just as the question "Is mass media affecting our kids?".

[cin]

The Internet helps us get connected, it helps us communicate in ways we couldn't have imagined possible, 20 or 30 years ago. But in fact, there's more depression amongst young people nowadays than ever before, and people are feeling more and more lonely.

this part i can explain. you say internet helps us communicate. true, but
this does not necessarily mean positive communication. people get mocked
and bullied over the internet (don't want to call out any names, but priam).

[Stress]

Wewt, I know the guys who put that video together! Well, as a Sociology major (along with English and Psychology), I can assure you that mass media has a great effect. bThe question your essentially posing is "Is our society effected by society?". The answer to this is obvious, just as the question "Is mass media affecting our kids?".

This would imply that our society equals mass-media, right?

[MrFudge]

of course mass-media has an effect on society, ever heard of the jewish propaganda?

[TOloseGT]

This would imply that our society equals mass-media, right?

our society is mass media. mass media represents an image and quality of life that everyone strives for. they work so they can become rich, not everyone does though. it's like the "perfection" of hollywood. why are we so absorbed in the lives of these super stars, because we want to be them and walk in their extravagant shoes. i believe that this is the natural evolution of our species. we began in isolated communities that became civilizations, and as our technology grows, we will continually be exposed to new people and new experiences by those people.

as for children, it's really up to the parents how they choose to raise their kids. not every family will sit their child in front of the TV. of course, with the demands of the job nowadays, it's hard to find quality time for the kids. that also comes back to what media has shown us: beautiful and rich people with lots of money and big houses and fancy cars. it prolly covers 70% of media content (arbitrary number).

the internet was a fluke that was available just when most of the world was opening up. it's a tool that we can channel our innate desire for communication into. everyone's signing on to read the news around the world in their own time. however, the fact that it's easy and effective shouldn't pry people away from the real world. no, i don't think we're closer to each other because of the internet, in fact, with myspace and facebook, we're creating a world within a world that we can imprint parts of us into, and unfortunately taking something out of ourselves as wel. it isn't communication that we as a species are used to, and as u said, suicides among the younger crowd have gone up and more people feel lonely.

i don't believe it's a good thing that we continue to "socialize" through a virtual buffer because we need to be around people and talk to people face to face to live a happy life.

[CrimsonNuker]

Its usually how you're treated that influences you, just because you a dragon dieing or a midget in a giant tank or some kid shooting lazer pew pew beams doesn't mean that you're gonna turn out to be a bad person. This goes for both ways, just because you see some pansy bear go to the library and sing and talk about the book with his other animal friends doesn't mean you're gonna go and do the same lol.

Things like bullying, abuse, etc. etc. is what forms you. In elementry school, we used to pick on this kid because he failed a grade and hit puberty when he was 6 and I can sure as hell assure you hes got low self esteem, do I feel bad for him? No. Why? Because this is the shit that happens when you don't stick up for yourself.

Oh and this:

But in fact, there's more depression amongst young people nowadays than ever before, and people are feeling more and more lonely.

In simpler words, we call these people Emos.

[Priam]

Yes, we're all greatly influenced by todays technology, and mostly internet.

We have access to things now, we wouldn't have thought possible years ago. This has advantages, and disadvantages. On of the major con's being children having access to content not suited for they're age or state of mind.

This doesn't condemn the medium as being evil, or simply wrong.

Imo, This just lays down a huge task before Parents and the community around them.

Basically parents are doing what they always have, raising they're children in this casual way. But casual doesn't cut it anymore these days. Parents need to be active on several area's, making sure they're kids get the right content. Stressfull, yes. Undoable? no.

Take that story of that emo girl that killed herself. People blamed the entire emo-movement for that. But where were the parents when she started dressing different, when she dyed her hair black. Etcetera. They're official comment was: "She told us it was just a fashion". And they were OK with that explanation.

Whereas they could've googled it, and known what was happening in they're daughters life on the first search result.

Mass media isn't ruining our children, it's the dissabillity to act on the parents/schools/family side. Mass media these days, basically just force them to do they're job better.

[Stress]

How many of them actually DO something? By the looks of it, not many. Why? Probably because they just don't know.

Maybe if children and parents would communicate more, that would suffice as far as knowledge on the parent's side is concerned.

[CrimsonNuker]

Once you go emo you can't go back to normo. Nyeheheh

[Priam]

How many of them actually DO something? By the looks of it, not many. Why? Probably because they just don't know.

Maybe if children and parents would communicate more, that would suffice as far as knowledge on the parent's side is concerned.

Lack of communication between parents and children, especially at ages like 10-18 is quite common. Even before the interwebs.

parents gotta deal with signs of changing behaviour, they always have.

[XemnasXD]

the effects of the mass-media on society has largely been exaggerated by the mass-media

[Priam]

the effects of the mass-media on society has largely been exaggerated by the mass-media

truth.

[Stress]

How many of them actually DO something? By the looks of it, not many. Why? Probably because they just don't know.

Maybe if children and parents would communicate more, that would suffice as far as knowledge on the parent's side is concerned.

Lack of communication between parents and children, especially at ages like 10-18 is quite common. Even before the interwebs.

parents gotta deal with signs of changing behaviour, they always have.

It is common, but not healthy (I've just experienced it). Ideally, both sides should attempt to keep in touch. Indeed, there's a time when children separate from their parents, but while the process of building one's character is still going on, I believe there's no one better to help one than the ones who gave him live. That's how I feel right now.

[SM-Count]

The effects of mass media on society is declining while the effects of narrow-cast is increasing.

[Squirt]

If you mean like music then heck yeah. Retards are wearing shirts that are 2X there sizes and they put bandanas on there faces. They look like idiots thinking that there * gangster*

As for rock... well rock just creates the emos....

[Priam]

The effects of mass media on society is declining while the effects of narrow-cast is increasing.

do elaborate.

[SM-Count]

The effects of mass media on society is declining while the effects of narrow-cast is increasing.

do elaborate.

Cliff Notes: Narrow cast is growing because it takes mass media information and breaks it down for you. During that breaking down process they, maybe unconsciously, develop biases that transfers down to the viewers. They take difficult to understand information that is boring to most and makes it fun by spinning it to create controversy and easing up the language and length. We love narrow cast because we find it entertaining, therefore we spend a good amount of time watching and reading this stuff because we think we're learning and we're still having fun, leading to a false sense of communication and more laziness. This leads to the conclusion that it is narrow cast opposed to mass media that affects us more detrimentally. If you actually want to read why I hate online crap journals so much it's right down there v.

Mass media, newspapers, broadcast television, etc. play the role of messenger between everyone's individual lives and the rest of the world. Or at least they used to. Because every media source is biased in some way it is inevitable that we develop similar biases. However, the last time a vast majority of members after the 80s generation picked up the New York times and watched the CBS evening news (all U.S. co. because that's where I'm currently located, same goes for each country's individual respective news agencies) is never. Thus these news outlets no longer have a direct impact on our lives like they used to, instead they get filtered through the minds of blog writers and online 'journalists'.

To address the first problem, people spend too much time on narrow cast. Narrow cast, defined as information formatted and distributed to selected and limited individuals, is rising because, simply, it's more entertaining. Rather than 'hard news' the new generation of viewers enjoy 'soft news'. This can be seen everywhere. People would much rather read about a celebrity over dosing on drugs written in 22 point font written in 5th grade English with a pink title with pictures filling fifty percent of the page rather than the real reasons underlying China's involvement in Tibet or the recently published U.S. army records about Iraq. We are no longer reliant on mass media sources to tell us the news because it's too boring and our attention spans are not trained to read such esoteric looking information. We've adapted to having bloggers and online journalists break down mass media information, whether it be the Associated Press or Washington Times or even CNN, into more controversial topics. Controversy brings viewer ship and that's all soft news outlets care about. So instead of reading the paper or watching the evening news to gain some insight on the world around us we would rather be entertained and learn spun information.

This leads to some unfortunate side effects. One, the major one, is that biases from news outlets are often amplified to get the most attention. Through selective perception and retention we can easily forget mass media news, however when the news comes from a source that creates controversy intentionally it is much more likely we remember the news and regard the narrow cast source as reliable, thus developing new views or reinforcing previously held ones. This leads to the social conditioning and eventually the problem of a more sedentary lifestyle in order to be up to date on the latest 'news'. Further down the time line the parents have no restraints on their children using similar narrow casts for information because they can see no harm in it, thus resulting in the, now, rapidly rising reliance on narrow cast.

[Stress]

We are no longer reliant on mass media sources to tell us the news because it's too boring and our attention spans are not trained to read such esoteric looking information.

Can any sort of public information be considered esoteric nowadays?

[SM-Count]

We are no longer reliant on mass media sources to tell us the news because it's too boring and our attention spans are not trained to read such esoteric looking information.

Can any sort of public information be considered esoteric nowadays?

Yes. I guarantee you an overwhelming amount of people will just look at the front page of the New York Times and not read it, and when you force them to read it they will not be able to comprehend the gist of the information.

Read my Cliff Notes to my tl;dr post.

[Stress]

As for rock... well rock just creates the emos....

Music is but the manifestation of what is inside one's soul. My favorite musical genre is Melodic Death Metal. Do you think that, if, starting with tomorrow, I start listening to Gangster Rap, do you think it's going to turn me into a "gangster"? Am I going to start using "fly" or "fo' sho'"?
I guarantee not.

One's interior traits define the music he prefers, not vice-versa.


As for what Shadowman said, honestly, I think that's just sad.

[Draquish]

*ducks*


*enters thread*


I usually watch this news 'network'. They focus a little bit more on news, rather than Britney Spears. >_>.


*runs away from thread*

[Da_Realest]

If people don't read/watch it, then it would not be relevant. The mass-media is only relevant because people make it relevant.

Also, any mentality stable child knows its just a cartoon. The violence has little to no effect on them.

[non ego man]

This should scare you.

"The Merchants of Cool"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/

Obey.