I consume a lot of media on average, when I am bored, it’s waiting for me, when I have lots of things to do, it’s waiting for me. This impacts my life in many ways, social media, to be specific, has become my outlet when I just don’t want to deal with my life or just be distracted, which can be just as damaging. Being aware of my media consumption, has changed my interaction with media because whenever I see a specific ad on tv I instantly remember what we talk about in class, taking note of the color of the background, the camera angle, and the lighting of ads are some of the things that specifically stand out to me. Or when they talk about how you can be like everyone else, I quickly think of the advertising techniques we brushed up on in class. My media consumption habits have definitely changed this semester. I think because school has gotten so much more demanding and stressful, I find myself escaping the difficulties of my everyday life by opening up my computer or staring at my feed on Instagram for hours. I wish it wasn’t so, but to me, through feeding these habits makes coping with life easier. It’s improtant to have media literacy because when seeing anything proposed by a brand, we are not foreign to their normal ideas to trick people in to unnecessarily spend money. Being an educated consumer helps to benefit us because we are able to understand the entire picture and not just see the ad and flashy colors, but the actual product and idea they are selling or presenting. From keeping this log, I was able to analyze numerous ads and gain the information that will help me in the future and the present in making decisions that involve me needing to use my media analyzing. Thoughts that I have on media literacy would be asking the question of “do advertisers really use these techniques that I am analyzing— on purpose?” This question to me is important because do these ideas that I’ve picked up while learning about media literacy actually benefit me?
I was recently at the mall shopping for clothes when I realized a lot of the expensive clothing items I noticed on the rack, were a fraction of the price at the thrift store, yet still the same quality. I was sort of confused and didn't really understand why someone would rather spend five times as much on something than to get it for cheap. Then it hit me, people would much rather buy their things from the store or at the mall because the connotation with shopping at the thrift store means you don't have as much money. I believe this ideology stems from media. Even with the literal name of the store, "Goodwill", it makes it seem like you're donating to people in need. Nobody wants to feel like they are in need or depend on others donations to wear clothes, it hurts one's pride. The distortion of this in media creates a false reality where the connotation with shopping from thrift stores is that "you're poor" versus "you know how to bargain...
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