Victims of Media

Victims of Media Essay:

Over the past several years the use and production of technology has risen rapidly. Today people use computerized products on a daily bases. From the time we wake up to the time we fall asleep we are surrounded by technology and media. From children to elderly adults television and the internet has impacted and formed a way of thinking and intellect within these individuals. Children as young as ten years old carry around cell phones in their hands and wast the day away online playing video games. People now are more concerned about what computer or cell phone to purchase then their basic essentials. Commercials and televised programming like reality shows have disillusioned and brainwashed youth in a negative way. Sexual content, language, violence, and propaganda on television have ruined communication and culture within the youth. Famous writers such as Neil Postman have asked the question,” is Technology using us or are we using technology?”(Woo) Some people say that the internet and some televised programs are education and if not for the internet one could not do research papers and obtain massive amounts of factual and intellectual information without the computer. Although, these arguments are correct to a certain point, however the media and technological products have destroyed the innocence in youth, cut off communication between people, and have destructed critical thinking.

Media has ended the purity in young children. Children as young as ten years old are exposed to sexually explicit material and violence. Author David Buckingham believes, “electronic media [has the] singular power to exploit children’s vulnerability, to undermine their individuality and to destroy their innocence” (Buckingham 41}. The entertainment industry molds the youth’s minds into believing girls and boys should have a certain body type and physical appearance. Children become sick trying to fulfill a dream of becoming like the stars they see on television. Women believe they have to look a certain way in order to have a male companion and will stop at nothing to get it. In addition, the police shows and WWF (World Wrestling Federation) teach children that it is alright to be hostile towards one another. Youth also finds it okay to use weapons such as guns since the celebrities they look u8p to have guns. Additionally, by exposing youth to a bad climate the media also ruins culture in the youth. Most people grow up in religious families who value their faith in god. “We have all seen how religion is packaged on television, as a kind of Las Vegas stage show, devoid of ritual, “Sacrality, and Tradition”(Postman 537). Youth is less interested in their culture and more interested in the culture of video games and movie stars. Media uses children to buy, wear, and sale their products. The youth are Media’s highest consumers. Media uses youth to get to adults money.

Television has placed a gap between communication in a family and society. Instead of going outside and hanging out with friends, people, like children, are staying home and chatting online or watching television. David Buckingham says, “in the home, television was seen both as new way of bringing the family together, and as something which would undermine natural family interaction” (43). Although a family might communicate more if they like the same type of shows on television, the family does not interact with one another over a normal and healthy setting. People need to see one another, play sports, shop, listen to music, and etc. to gain and develop normal social skills. If a child plays video games when they are small land do not interact with children that are his/her age the child is prevented from learning basic social skills that will later on have a negative impact on the child. Postman believes,” schools should help students discern how technology molds thinking and communication and teach them to view TV and computers not as tolls but as philosophies of knowledge” (Woo). Postman meant to say the internet should be used for scholarly purposes not for chatting online. Although some say chatting online is a form of communication, the child does not interact with whom he/she is speaking to and is communicating with the computer screen. Good Communication skills are vital to an individual’s success in life. An individual needs to learn how to interact with people because no matter how useful and reliable technology becomes people need each other to make it in this world. Without companionship this world would be a lonely place. Bruno Bettelheim, a child psychologist says,” Children who have been taught, or conditioned, to listen passively most of the day to the warm verbal communication s coming from the TV screen….are often unable to respond to real persons because they arouse so much less feeling that the skilled actor. Worse they lose the ability to learn from reality because life experiences are much more complicated that the ones they see on the screen” (qtd. In Winn 1).

Finally, television takes away one’s ability to gain knowledge by thinking without the use of computers. Many people today have lost deep train of thought and depth because they rely on computers to check spelling errors or use calculators for basic math problems to give them answers. Technology has made people lazy, no one wants to open up a dictionary and look up a word they do not know. Students these days rely on Summaries of the books they are supposed to read on the internet. The internet takes away valuable and gainful knowledge an individual could have. Postman stated “those humans are the most fragile things in nature” (Postman 552). Humans are easily influenced and move however he media wants them to move. Postman says:

The relationship between information and the mechanisms for its control is fairly simple to describe: Technology increases the available supply of information. As the supply is increased, control mechanisms are strained. Additional control mechanisms are needed to cope with new information. When additional control mechanisms are themselves technical, they in turn further increase the supply of information. When the supply of information is no longer controllable, a general breakdown in psychic tranquility and social purpose occurs. Without defenses, people have no way of finding meaning in their experiences, lose their capacity to remember, and have difficulty imagining reasonable futures (qtd. Kaplan 1).

People stop working hard and rely on technology to do their homework for them. Computers have made people lose analyzing and learning what novels and stories are all about. To this affect several years from now hardly anyone will actually open a book and read it since they could preview the summary online. In addition, students use written essays on the computer to write their own paper which is cheating and is wrong. Technology has bad effects on the mind set of people.

Technology has influenced everyone’s life in a negative and positive way. Computers can be used in a positive and helpful way but it can also be dangerous. Media controls our movements and tells us what is “in” and what is “out.” We depend on television to answer questions about current events, weather, medicine, and etc. It is better to read a newspaper then to receive any information from the media because sometimes the media sends false messages to audience. Technology is a dangerous tool if one does not know how to use it to their advantage. IN media, “jealousy, greed, and even violence enter the scene, and come very close to destroying the harmony that has characterized culture” (Postman 534). People need to be more aware of technological media and find a way to use it instead of having technology use us. Although humans are the ones who created technology, technology uses us. Years from now people will rely more and more on computers and less on themselves and lose themselves in a world controlled by machines. Any tool can be dangerous if used as a weapon. The internet could be a way of communication with people all over the world but it could also be a death trap.

Works Cited

Postman, Niel. “Future Shlock.” Ourselves Among Others. NewYork:

Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 531-539

Buckingham, David. After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up In the Age of

Electronic Media. USA. Polity Press, 2000.

Woo, Elaine. Neil Postman, 72:Author Warned of Technology Threats, Obituaries.

New York Times October 12, 2003.

Kaplan, Nancy. Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine. www.ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/mar/hyper/npcontexts-199.html. Volume 2, March 1,