Media Profile

I think that media is very important in my life, not only because of entertainment but also because it’s my database for all information I may need now or in the future it’s also a large portion of the career I’m studying. I am mostly passionate about the visual forms of media; photos, posters, icons and logos. This is because I am studying photography and design and these things are very important to my studies.

The new forms of media that have arisen over the past few years as the internet developed are a bit questionable and debatable. Some are good and helpful but the stuff on the other side of the spectrum is absolutely horrible. It’s filled with; Hate, racism, prejudice people, violence, and promotion of all these things. Places like twitter can be a breeding ground for hateful comments, making people extremely upset all over the world, in places that have access to sites like twitter of course. People on Facebook are very similar but I feel twitter has Facebook beat with hateful bullcrap.

On the other hand there are websites making a good name for themselves, like Tumblr. I use Tumblr so I talk from an experience standpoint. Now before I make my opinion I’d like to explain my use of the site. I have almost 200 followers, majority of which are female. I follow about 700 other blogs like; walking dead fandoms, bmx blogs, humor blogs, tattoo blogs, photography blogs, food blogs and support groups for people feeling a bit under the weather and looking for someone to chat with. First of all support groups are a thing, and there are tons of them. This already shows that people on this site care. I know Tumblr has a reputation to be for people with depression and that’s not it. It’s just that people with depression use Tumblr because they know the people (complete strangers too) on there will give a crap unlike people on twitter who would likely tell you to get over it if they didn’t know you. This is one reason why websites like Tumblr are elite to sites like twitter. Also I rarely see someone being shallow or hateful without getting away with it. Hell I hardly see hateful comments at all but when they do happen people are quick to correct them. Sites like Tumblr are good but they aren’t all like that.

Regardless of all the crappy stuff that’s in the media, I still love it. Information is easy to get and knowledge is power so that is a plus, you can see beautiful things and learn all about them, you can get visual or auditory pleasure like music or movies. My personal favourite is pictures. I love photos and looking at them wondering what the place is really like beyond the camera or what the photographer is like and why he/she is taking that photo.  I really over analyze what I’m looking at when it comes to photography but that’s why I like it so much and maybe that’s where my enjoyment with Tumblr comes from because it is almost entirely photos. Media is important in my life and this is why.

Blog #3

Media puts a large influence on the lives of adolescences every day, but more specifically, reality television shows. Are these influences positive or negative? Personally I believe that they can be positive in some circumstances but overall I feel they have a negative influence on the younger population of boys and girls anywhere where reality television is accessible. It creates unrealistic expectations, it gives a false perception and it creates poor decision making skills in teens. I can’t say that these things are positive.

Firstly, reality TV gives unrealistic expectations to younger viewers. It can make you believe that there’s less responsibility when it comes to life, take jersey shore for example, they all get jobs when they are put on the shore and when they have their jobs they hardly go, they get drunk or sleep on the job, they have other people take their shifts so that they can do questionable things instead of work. This can make people believe that this is normal when it comes to having a summer job. Just because everyone else is having fun it doesn’t mean that you can be unprofessional and irresponsible during your job. This is how you get fired. This is a convention in reality TV and it is a very negative force in our modern day pop culture.

It also gives off a false perception on life. It leads people to believe things about life that may not be true. Take man vs. wild for example, people watching that show may think that living out in the forest would be easy but trying to do what he does could land you in some serious trouble; you could poison yourself or develop an infection. You’d need to have the specific knowledge to duplicate the actions he takes.

Finally, it creates bad decisions. Teens are very impressionable and watching TV can really lead them to make some bad decisions. 16 and pregnant is a great example and I know that can be a touchy subject but being young a pregnant is not a good decision unless you are 100% prepared for the responsibility of a child and most of these girls on the show are not and being unemployed and still living with your mother are terrible conditions for  a new born. Except for the fact that the mother is there to help but that isn’t necessarily fair to her. But let’s not talk about just girls because boys can be just as impressionable if not more impressionable, Watching shows like jackass or nitro circus can lead to some extremely dangerous situations. Kids watching these kinds of shows may think that this kind of stuff is fun and may try it getting them seriously hurt or arrested. People on TV are on TV for a reason and this isn’t stuff you do outside of TV.

These shows, though are entertaining, they can be influential to the youth and can be a crappy force in pop culture of today. Shows like jackass, jersey shore, 16 and pregnant or nitro circus can be impressionable forms of media and can lead to some un-desirable lifestyles (ie. Broke, or hospitalized), people need to learn to be more cautious when watching television and that everything you see may not be true and that not everything is realistic about reality TV.