What else can be distorted?

Media’s influence on youth is something that happens every single day, with a turn on of the television, to billboards on the highway, to magazines at the doctor’s office everywhere you go there is a media outlet that is trying to grab your attention and get you to notice what they are trying to say or do. There is rarely a time when you are not exposed to some sort of media outlet and because of this media gains an entirely huge part of your attention and can influences your behaviors to adapt to what is being exposed. Youth are a direct source that media can influence because they are naïve and don’t understand fully that a manipulation is even occurring.

The media tells youth how they should look, young girls become obsessed with the idea of being tall, beautiful and skinny while young boys are being told they should be tall, muscular and aggressive. Advertisement after advertisement has this depiction of what beautiful is and what standards need to be achieved in order to be desirable. When these attributes cannot be met, drastic measures can occur to gain this, from dieting and eating disorders, to extreme low confidence and depression. All this reaches our youth and they become almost intoxicated with the idea of what they should be when they “grow up”. Children that are in elementary school are dieting, and are constantly struggling to be as thin as the models or become equally depressed because they are not as tall or as pretty as what they see on television.

When kids are constantly being exposed to what the media defines as beautiful, how do they ever develop self-confidence?  When most of what is portrayed is a fantasy, or an illusion that has been modified over and over again to perfection, when perfection was never really there in the first place. When adolescents are exposed to this type of media content it only shapes them into becoming obsessive about their appearance and when the realization hits that they will never be exactly like models they see, depression seeps in causing a negative outlook on their body image and setting them up to never be satisfied with what they see in the mirror.

The only way I can see this changing is by recognition. Recognizing and educating our youth about the flaws of the media and showing them that what is portrayed isn’t always what it seems. We need to open the eyes of our youths and celebrate being an individual who is unique and positive and not someone who wants to imitate or replicate what they are told is perfection and beautiful. The impact that we can make today on our youth can set a positive reaction years and years to come, but we have to start somewhere and we have to start fast. 

whos the fairest of them all?

Mirror, mirror

I read this article today and I couldn’t believe how much information I gained about how we perceive ourselves in the mirror and why we perceive ourselves in this way. It made me think about how if women are dissatisfied with their appearance then what kind of message does that send to their children. The media portrays what they feel is perfection and then we tried to abide by that standard and face a constant struggle of trying to amount to this standard. Adolescents are so influenced by media but so are adults and because of this the negativity associated with our appearance and can be passed down to our children and they too can become obsessed with the idea of perfection that they see in the media and because they see it occurring at home as well. I never really thought of it this way but I am glad I read this article because it put a lot of things in perspective, so please take a look at it yourself and let me know what you think.

Impact of Imitation

This video I thought I was very good representation of how much the media can impact how you perceive yourself and others alike, it recognizes the simple art of imitation, and because of this the media knows that once a message is delivered that people will imitate what they see and will want to be the ideal representation. It all comes down to power, and when we view the media content we give them power to control what they feel is beautiful or intelligent or what ideas or thoughts they feel should be influenced and portrayed. The impact that the media has over a person, let alone a young boy or girl, is extremely powerful and the only place we can start is by knowledge. We need to recognize that this occurs and teach this to our children that are growing up so they are not confused and persuaded by what the media depicts as socially acceptable.

Is this what everyone sees when they look in the mirror?

Who needs friends when you can blog?

When you wake up in the morning the first thing that can come to some people’s minds are that they need to check their Facebook account, or start updating the world on their twitter account, or turn on their favorite T.V. program, all this might seem like an ordinary day in the life of a person growing up in today’s fast paced technological advanced environment but when did updating a status trump running around outside with our younger generation. More and more kids are turning to social media to express themselves rather than directly expressing themselves face to face with peers.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-04-29/facebook-face-to-face/54629816/1

The article above stresses the importance of face to face communication and how it is the best form of communication. The younger generation today is more used to using cellphones and texting than communicating directly, I have experienced situations personally when I would be in the room with a group of people and two of them would be sitting in the same room texting EACHOTHER! I can’t believe that even when faced with the opportunity to converse face to face some people chose ulterior ways than the basic way they have been taught.

Social media has advanced the way people communicate but it also has taken a very important piece of communication away and that is the direct communication that comes with an in person conversation. If our generation is growing up with the idea that online communication, texting or emailing are better forms of communicating then what will happen in years to come, do we no longer have interviews for job positions? Isn’t meeting someone and talking to them in person a way of measuring a person’s social capabilities as well as their intellectual capabilities. Social media has impacted our day to day lives and also has bridged a gap between a lot of communication issues but youths today still need to be reminded that not all communication of ideas or thoughts needs to be directed to social media outlets, that they can express themselves with one another in person and get the same response if not a better response that is more positive than feedback that is presented online or in an email that’s more impersonal. Maybe if we recognize and use the social learning theory to set an example it could prove to be more responsive, that communication no matter the way is important and direct communication is an even better way to express one’s ideas and thoughts and to get that positive in person feedback is way more gratifying.

New Silent Generation... Not So Silent.

This may seem like a very broad category but I want to take a closer look at the influence and impact of media exposure on young adults and how these exposures shape their life and turn our young generation into the people they become today and the future path that they will lead because of it.  The way that technology has advanced has become a prominent instrument used in the day to day lives of an average teenager, from television sitcoms to laptops to iPhones, virtually any piece of information that one should seek, they could find. There are many different theories that can explain the way in which our teenagers interact and how they envision their own media exposures.

Media exposures like advertisements are constantly being viewed by our youth, every time you turn on the television or flip through a magazine you are bombarded with ads trying to reach a particular audience and that audience is more than likely directed at our youth who will gain interest and buy or use their products or services. Because of this there are many problems that can arise with the constant exposure by media outlets that can jeopardize or even harm our growing youth today. You can barely turn on the TV and watch the news without being shown the world presented with all the violence and negativity with very limited positive information as well.

In our era today teenagers often turn to different media outlets to express themselves as well as turn to gain knowledge and information, which can be in turn present them with less than accurate information as well as a stereotype that can jeopardize their growth as an individual. With the media telling them what and who they should be its hard to control what is being seen and heard and have an individualized opinion of one’s self. This plays a huge role in the development of our youths and how they react and live in their day to day lives.

The media has a way of capturing the user and providing them with information that acts as a speeding bullet and sways their mind into whatever it is that they are trying to prove or sell. When you add this into the lives of our youth that are growing up in world that is constantly being shaped by the media, there becomes an issue of self-identity and this can lead youths to act out in extremes, from the violence in video games that children play, to a little girl viewing the models in a magazine as the idea of pretty. So much is influenced by the media and with it comes the total impact on our developing youth.