Reflection.

The amount of media I consume started impacting my life before I even knew about it! I don’t think that I became aware to how much media impacts my life until I took this class. Media kind of impacted me subconsciously. I realized that the other day a lot when we were watching that movie, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, when I became aware of that Mane and Tale shampoo. Even though that movie was supposed to be criticizing media while using big companies to fund for the advertising in it, I still became very interested in that product. I’ve never even heard of it before but the idea strikes me as odd because it is used on horses too! I honestly felt like I needed to buy it after, even though I don’t even need shampoo at the moment. It made me think, what other products have won my attention before? I think that maybe now that I know about my media consumption, maybe I won’t be so vulnerable against buying things that are unnecessary for me. Now I will be able to think about what attracts me to certain products and I can use this thinking to ask myself, does this product really fulfill this need I feel? Now that I know about the media tactics, I can understand what people these ads are targeted for and why. Before, I didn’t even know that there were certain advertising techniques that are used or I never even paid attention to how manipulative commercials can be or who they are meant for in terms of their audience. I think my media consumption habits have changed because now I find myself less interested in products that say that they are the best or better than any other product because those statements are so vague and not very reliable since most products use those weasel words. I think it is important to have media literacy because you really get to understand why companies try so hard to put every detail how it is in their ad, the way it is. Every word, every sound, and every picture they put out there for us to see, when it comes to advertising, has a specific purpose whether we are aware of it or not. It helps us realize how precise companies work to manipulate their consumers to buying their products, because they really can have that power! And I think that being an educated consumer is important because now I won’t be buying so many products that are really unnecessary for me and I will understand that none of the products will really make a difference in my life. From keeping this log, I learned what kind of advertisements really interested me and got my attention as well as why they did. This log helped me put ideas together from what I’ve learned and kept me open to what other people’s opinions were on the same log I did. I really found it interesting reading from what other people got from different blogs and what they thought of mine. This assignment was actually really fun in my opinion, because I love to take things apart, piece by piece, to understand what advertisers are trying to convey or make me feel. Media is very important in our world today because it surrounds us and impacts us in ways that we didn’t know it could so I thought this subject was fascinating.