Reflection Time

The huge amounts of media that we consume each day definitely affect all of our lives and there is no way of denying that unless you live under a rock. See I just displayed it right there. There was a Geico commercial a couple years ago about a guy living under a rock. I remembered what the commercial was about and what company put it out, and it has been years since I have seen that commercial. Somehow that commercial stayed with me in the back of my mind for a very long time now. I wasn't even the target audience because I didn't need car insurance when I was twelve, but it stayed with me somehow. We consume massive amounts of media each day and it affects our lives majorly. If it is walking into a store at the mall subconsciously because you saw an ad he day before, or thinking that Domino's has the best pizza and purchasing from their because their ad said so. We always try to block out these messages by not paying attention to them or questioning them but they still find a way to creep into our heads and stay there forever. And the thing is that there is literally no way to stop it. You will always read a billboard when at a stoplight, or see a tweet telling you how great a product is, or seeing commercials on tv. I mean a ton of people watch the Super Bowl just to see the commercials and how funny they are. Even us as critical thinkers, who know and understand what is going on do these things. I constantly get pulled into ads before a youtube video and watch it because it looks interesting, or laugh at a Doritos commercial and have that find its way into my mind. Media is 100% a part of everyone's lives and it impacts all of ours in a big way.

I consider myself more media literature after doing this blog, but don't know if I will use my newly learned skills that often. Every time I see an ad I see what they are trying to do and use critical thinker skills such as metacognition or skepticism to take a step back and look at the ad more closely. I do this all the time and think, "oh they are trying to draw me in by saying everyone uses it so you should too." Much like I try to find the hero's journey of every movie I watch, I do this subconsciously with the ads, but in no way am I saying that my media habits have changed or will. The amount of time I spend on Twitter each day has not changed this semester, and I don't see it in the future. I know that I consume these messages everyday, but have not changed anything about it. I still occasionally watch youtube ads, and I still read almost every billboard that I pass on the road. I think that I have been doing these things for so long that it will be next to impossible for me to break these habits that I do.