Reflection
Media. It's an interesting aspect of our culture. As a teenager, I have the ability to be picky about what I choose to let into my life. Media is everywhere and I make a lot of conscious decisions about what I choose to see. Or, so I thought. I used to think that I was above consumerism and being marketed to, that I was nobody's target audience because mainstream media didn't actually know who I was. Boy was I wrong. They know me all right. They may not know my middle name or my social security number, but they know what I like, they know my hobbies, my music taste, where I like to shop, what I'll be doing this summer, what I excel at in school, they probably even know what I'm going to do with my life and I don't even know that yet. How? How have they managed to give me a label? It's simple, I told them. All those hours spent logging in, liking, reblogging, following, googling, friending, poking, gaming, listening, tweeting, watching, scrolling. That's how they've learned who I am. In media, everyone has a label, and that's exactly what they've given to me.
I used to think that I was beyond media. That those 3,000 ads I came in contact with daily weren't actually making an impact on my life. Little did I notice that I only acknowledge a handful of those ads. They would either be the ones thrown right in front of me between reruns of How I Met Your Mother, or the ones with hilariously obvious ad techniques and bright colors in an uninteresting issue of Teen Vogue. I was completely unaware of the effect that media had already had on my life. You see, I was already subscribed to Teen Vogue. I've already watched six seasons of How I Met Your Mother. Media had become a part of me before I could even comprehend its possible effect.
Now, at the peak of media consumption in my life, I am faced with the task of understanding who I am through all the clutter and confusion of advertising with its various techniques and subliminal messaging. Since the beginning of the quarter, I am happy to say that my view of media has changed. I am no longer the doe-eyed magazine addicted girl I was a few weeks ago. That girl is gone, in her place blogs a cynical, media literate, critically thinking, feminist who doesn't need media to tell her who she is and what band she should listen to next (she can find that out by herself thank you very much). Emerging from my abyss, dripping with my knowledge of ad techniques and emotional needs that they apply to, I am ready to face the world of social media and pop culture that lies around me.
But being aware of media, how it is used, and how it affects me is only the first part. The next is being the consumer that I want to be, not what MTV tells me I should be. Just like in an episode of Hoarders or My Strange Addiction, the first step in dealing with your problem is admitting you have a problem. So here goes: I, Hannah Ross, find myself to be guilty of buying in to advertising techniques, wasting countless hours on social media, reading (and rereading) hundreds of fashion magazines, and accepting stereotypes, given to me through media, of myself and others. The next step has two options, I can either learn to live with my problem or do something to change it. To change it, I not only have to continue on with media literacy but also have to apply it to myself, as the consumer. I think I'm up for the challenge.
If this unit has taught me one thing, it's that I am not different. I am exactly who media wants me to be and without my new found ability to see this, I would be unable to break out of my own stereotype. Humans are naturally dynamic. We shouldn't let media teach us otherwise. We have the power to destroy stereotypes, change our politics, end global warming, and quite possibly save the world if we make an effort to be aware of what we are exposing ourselves too and in general, be media literate.
