MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MEDIA: UPDATE

In my first Blog post regarding media I described it as a "poison" with many negative side effects.  Although I would like to say that I have cut down on my social media usage and have used my knowledge on advertising tactics to lessen their grip on me a consumer, I would be lying.  Truthfully I sill consider my phone to be my comfort object, and while I don't have much free time I often choose to fill a couple free moments with a refresh of my Twitter feed, or look at Snapchat stories.  I am still enticed by "clickbait" articles and videos that grasp my attention, even when I am well aware that the titles are exaggerated in hopes of attracting readers and viewers.

While watching TV I can now identify the target audiences of the commercials as well as the appeals and techniques behind the manipulative clips, yet I still catch myself falling a victim to ads that seems to know exactly what I want.  Admittedly these are usually food advertisements that show the unrealistically perfect cheese-pull that comes from taking a slice out of a pizza.  Or an ad for a cool new car that drives over massive sand dunes in a desert, when in reality the consumer would only ever drive it through a city on perfectly paved streets.  Though I can tell that these ads are presenting more than just the product they want the consumer to buy, they still make me yearn for a warm and cheesy pizza.

I think that through focusing so much on my relationship with media over the last serval weeks I have been able to now come to the conclusion that even-though I can see through the sappiness or unrealistic settings in which products are presented through advertisements-- I am still not immune to them, because like any other consumer there will always be something I desire, and ads simply remind me of those desires.