A reminder?

Media and its effects have a big influence on the way people live their lives. Recently I completed an exercise from the book “Media Literacy” by W. James Potter that analyzed the role that the media plays on people’s everyday life and how its effects contribute to the things we do. In this exercise it instructed to pick a medium (i.e. watch a show, surf the net, etc.,) and see how it makes you feel or do after.

I chose to watch “21”, a new movie that has topped the box offices in the past couple weekends. The movie was about gambling and took place in Las Vegas. In about 3 weeks I will be traveling to Vegas for my first time and have been pretty excited for a couple of months now. But, the entire time as I was watching the movie and after it was over, the excitement of going to Vegas grew enormously and has played an impact on the spending decisions I have recently been making.

Now one could say that this viewing of the movie has influenced me and provoked me to do/change something, which is a logical thought. However, the way I feel, is that what I actually did was tied the movie in with something that I was already doing and excited about, and simply made me a little more passionate with the subject. This is the way that I feel the media affects the decisions we make.

People say that the media has the power to influence or change people’s behavior. I believe that the media merely acts as a catalyst for how people already think or feel and gives them a reason to act on it. For example, I’m a sports guy. I like to play, watch, and talk sports. But, sometimes I’m so busy I don’t have the time to get to play them and more or less forget about that aspect. And when I watch a movie or hear people talking about that idea, it reminds me that I like to play it as well and will provoke me to go out and act on that feeling.

Overall, I would say that I like my life with the media and would not want it to change as of now. I watch some TV, but not too much, I watch some movies, not too many, and I use the internet, but usually as a resource or for music. I am still active each day as I workout 3 days a week and play any and all sports I can join in on as much as I can. I work an awful lot and have a lot of issues to deal with that a normal 21 year old probably shouldn’t have which probably affects the way I feel about the media as well. In conclusion, too much more media exposure would probably change my lifestyle and make me lazier, and any less media exposure would take away from the break in reality I so need or reminders of things I can and like to do.