Desensitization Of The Media

The other day, I read about desensitization

Desensitization, an act of subliminal mind control where the victim’s conscience is forced to accept an ideology or concept which repetitively is shown to the victim, until the victim starts to accept it, or rather, starts to see it as norm. This is how I understood the concept anyway.

I believe this is the media’s deception.

There are alot of things which have been repetitively shown to us via various entertainment mediums. In a way, trying to make the public accept it and even inculcate it in their daily lives.

Here’s how. Have you ever found yourself supporting a married man/woman to cheat on their spouse in a movie? The movie portrays, as always, the spouse as a very dull person, drab, unavailable, controlling or a tyrant. In a way, making the viewer want to support the fact that the spouse is cheating or wants to cheat. Have you noticed as well, that they make the other person seem more likeable , to say the least, and even more attractive. Somehow, you immediately cannot hate the person.

Could this also have a hand in high divorce rates? Aside from the other factors?

Or how you see in the movies, the bachelor’s eve of a groom is usually what it shouldn’t be.  Ofcourse they portray the friends of the groom bringing in strippers to dance for him. Or rather, they go to strip clubs to watch naked girls dance. Same goes for the women. Isn’t this wrong? Yet it has been portrayed often in movies that people now find it cool enough to emulate it. And they emulate it till it goes too far that things happen and it ruins weddings.

what’s the point?

Then what about the portrayal of drugs and alcohol in the media. They have made it look so cool, now alot of young adults see the need to be into one of the two or both. Suddenly a party is no longer cool without alcohol or drugs. You’ve just got to get ‘high’ to have some real fun. Suddenly, when Friday comes a lot of young adults feel the need to go to clubs and go wild. Almost like a new religion. Doing anything other than that these days is considered by some as extremely boring.

Then I’ve observed Arabs or Arab-looking people have been portrayed in alot of movies as people plotting to bomb places wayyy before the 9/11 event even occurred. Even the Russians and the Chinese have portrayed as terrorists in numerous movies too. Isn’t this wrong?

Then there’s this ‘Fashion’ thing. I think that’s the latest disease. Suddenly owning a cloth isn’t just enough, you have to be fashionable. Especially for the ladies. It has to cling here, or reveal there to show areas where you have your best assets. Or they have to be of a certain shade of this color or that color. Or a certain celeb is putting it on so you should try it. What happened to individuality for goodness sake?

There are actually alot of examples out there. One just needs to sit down and think. Sometimes even the so called News channels like to serve baloney too. Sometimes, they either exaggerate a situation or only give details of a situation that would gain most people’s attention. I remember watching an old documentary, can’t remember where, where a retired journalist said something of this nature but not exactly: the chasm between what the news portrays and what actually happens is so great that you can’t even begin to comprehend.

Was he trying to say we think we  know, when we know nothing?

So I really don’t know where I’m going with this, and I don’t know why I’m even writing this post. But here’s what I’ve observed.

The media is trying ,very very very hard if I might add, to make the sordid look cool, acceptable and want to be practiced. A feat I believe they are succeeding at, considering the large amount of people who want to be more like the celebrities; dress like them, live like them, act like them  etc.

Suddenly over time, things such as nudity, materialism, vanity, hedonism are suddenly at the top of a majority of people’s priority list. These days, it’s almost as if everybody is doing the same thing, acting the same way- a sickening level of redundancy.

In all honesty, I’m scared that I may be pulled into this redundant way of thinking and living… If I am not  even there already.

I guess we just have to be careful about the things we consider as entertaining or ‘cool’.

Yes they may be fun and may even take our minds off the somewhat grueling reality, but we have to be careful on how we emulate them. Not everything we see celebrities do in movies or music videos is ‘cool’. Some people just don’t get that, though.

Remember in a T.V series, an episode lasts for 45minutes  or a little over an hour , and a group of episodes comprise of a season. Also, the duration of most music videos last a little over 4minutes. My point is, whatever they portray always has an end. You can’t compare that to someone who decides to emulate these things. Some of these things once emulated are hard to stop, and could leave lasting impressions and one could hurt others in the process.

My point to be exact: Live your life RIGHT and not how some movie, music video or magazine says you should.

And for the most part, i’ll just listen to the news but i’ll always keep it in mind that the REAL truth is out there.