One of my favurite philosophers is Plato for some of his ideas. One of my favourites is the allegory of the cave.
(Here is a quick video for those that don't know about it by Ted-Ed, they explain it very simply)
This idea plays a small role in todays story about life.
A Story About Life pt.2: Captivity
It is roughly 5:00 pm and you are sitting at a picnic table in an ally way somewhere. There is a bag of fast food on the table in front of you, so you reach in a take out the burger. Some kid comes running down the street yelling words you can't quite recall at the time but you aren't phased; it's everyday life. After eating your burger you get up and start walking, you never quite get out of the ally way as most of the world is made up of them at this point. Houses are so close together and equally spaced, it doesn't make much room for anything. Walking down the street you begin looking at the houses you start thinking to yourself "bars, no bars, bars, bars, no bars, no bars" and the few people walking around you are yelling at the houses as usual. You know that it is quite rare for someone to leave their house, but once someone leaves they never go back, they can't its impossible. One kid in front of you is yelling at the top of his lungs at a house with bars as a face, he must be new here. You tell him "you know the houses with bars will never hear you? they are completely ignorant about the outside all they know is that radio." The kid looks at you and runs away without saying another word on to the next house you figured. You see all the houses either have bars or no bars, you know that if the house has bars then the people in side have a closed mind and are captive of the societal norms. Those with no bars, well they just live in that world they know that its stupid and they know that they are being controlled by the radio, but they are comfortable in their homes... They don't want to leave and live in the streets. Those that live in the street try their hardest to get people to leave, they know that masses have the power to do anything even what those in-doors think is impossible. You secretly go back into your house before your parents notice you were gone and quickly before the people outside notice you.
I'm no writer, so this is probably poorly written, but the main idea is this: The majority of us know that the media is controlling our thoughts, news channels will show us what they want us to see, marketing companies make us want to buy into material things and they don't want you to be making your own choices, but in the end if you want to succeed in this world you can't live on the outside.