The Media: Bringing society so close yet so far

It isn’t recent information that the media is at constant consumption in modern society . There have been many sources expressing the paradoxical nature of the media, the idea that the media improves and makes it more accessible to communicate with each other but in fact does the contrary and disconnects people from interacting with one another. Take the header image for example, a series of candid photos of my friend constantly on the phone, which has become an experience of interaction that society has normalised.

This paradoxical idea has been over saturated ironically, through media as now there are many people that express their opposing views on what they call “anti-social media”. Reiterating the fact that the media creates a dystopian world, disconnecting people from reality. The paradox even has studies that provide supporting evidence proving that people interact less face-to-face in comparison to the past as social media makes it more easily available to communicate and stay in touch with people.

This then leads me to question whether modern society has actually regressed from being capable of accepting and providing real human interactions. As a personal example, ill use my friend from the image above. The day we met was at a his bar. However, instead of introducing himself face to face that night, he messaged me through Facebook after.  As media has become the main source of interaction between people, creating a false reality. My question is, because we are so reliant and have normalised that media is the main source of communication. That are people now afraid to have real interactions?  Take the video below for example as he expresses his nervousness and apprehensiveness to ask a girl out on a date the old fashioned way, without the assistance of social media.

 

In contrast, the rise of people afraid of real human interactions through the media may be balanced out as media has created a larger mass audience that are now able to be involved in produsage. As previously the audience were viewed as passive and easily influenced. But now due to the media we are able to flip this view that audiences are passive and view them as active roles, being critical and using the media as an advantage in their life. The problematic theory identified in Aristotle’s and Laswell’s communication models proves that not everyone is obtaining the same message as we, as receivers has he ability to decode those messages from the media. Take the video below for example, going further into the idea of how, why and if the media is able to “brainwash” the audience.

References:

Turnbull, S 2017, ‘Media Audiences’ Powerpoint slides, BCM110, University of Wollongong, viewed March 28th

Vienna, S 2013, ‘The paradox of social media is so attractive precisely because it is the least social form of communication human beings have ever invented’, weblog post, Jan 12 2013, viewed March 28th 2017, <https://digital-sherpa.me/2013/01/22/the-paradox-of-social-media-is-that-social-media-is-so-attractive-precisely-because-it-is-the-least-social-form-of-communication-human-beings-have-ever-invented/&gt;