Hello my great friends of Hive, happy new week to you all.
In my blog today, I will be answering one of the questions from the weekend engagement prompt. The question here is “Are you influenced by what you see on the media? Explain one way or the other” Out of all the other questions, this particular one caught my attention and made me interested in writing about it.
Gone are the days where people only get access to some vital information directly from people or most times, they would have to attend series of meetings and seminars before being exposed to the right information. All these was in the past but no now everything has changed, technology has evolved greatly that even most of our grandparents and even toddlers have access to the media.
The media is obviously what we see every day and it is everywhere, beginning from the simplest thing as billboards where one does not require internet services and yet the message would still be passed, short and clear to thousands of people who see these billboards.
I won’t even talk of radio where almost everyone in the village have access to the radio almost all the time. In churches and schools now, televisions and even projectors are used to send out information.
So you see, the media is not hidden and that fact that it has become a part of us means that it has a dominant influence on us either actively or passively, truth be told, no matter how much people might want to deny it, the truth still remains that what we as humans see and hear can later the way we think.
And so, the honest answer to this question is; yes, people are influenced by what they see on the media. The things you feed your eyes on, the social media comments you read, and even the controversies you hear on the social media have a great way of influencing our decisions in life most of the times.
Let me use myself as an example, there is this lady on social media who speaks so well and on different topics of interest, I get to see her videos and listen to her virtually everyday and guess what, I realized that I started speaking like she does and even to the gestures she makes while talking also got into me too, without conscious effort to act like her I suddenly found myself acting in the same way.
Also, there is this fashion blog that I get to see always and somehow I have passively dress just the way they do.
You can see with me that all these are not cock and bull stories, if you want to give it a try, follow a particular person and ensure to watch their videos, read their post everyday and suddenly you will realize that you will start acting like they do.
When all this happens, psychology calls it "social learning" and neuroscience explains it with mirror neuron activity. From these, it is evident that humans are naturally wired to learn from observing others.
Come to think of it, why do you think people develop certain mindsets after hearing or seeing something on the media? Why do some people even end up committing suicide after seeing posts or comments, especially on social media?
Having known how much impact the media have on us, let’s all guide our hearts and mind, and be careful of what you let your ears hear and your eyes see.
So let us all endeavour to use the media wisely and thoughtfully.
Thank you.