Media Blog Reflection 1/15/19

This whole unit on media and especially these media blogs has definitely caused a change in the way that I view and interact with it. The main thing that I do notice happening is that when I'm watching TV or on any media, I see an ad and I immediately think, "oh, that's a good one to use for my blog!" That actually got really annoying after a couple of times, because now all I can see in an ad is how well they're actually conveying their message and whether or not I can make something out of it and analyze the ad well. Or, I'll see an ad and actually think that it's really cool and that the company did a pretty good job at using the techniques. Before, I just thought that it was a really cool look at Times Square and sometimes ads would be funny. This assignment changed the way I look at it all.

My media consumption habits did change during this semester, but only recently towards the end. It could just be because of the amount of homework I have, but I honestly don't know if I got that much more. I feel like during the beginning to middle of the unit, I really wasn't that interested in analyzing the ads, and just continued on normally. But, I did eventually start actively looking at the ads. I didn't actually search up ads, but as was interacting with media, I started paying more attention to them. Even in TV shows, my sister would randomly see an advertisement that was placed in the show and call it out, and then for the rest of it I couldn't stop seeing them. I hope that eventually my media habits do change. I know that social media companies actively change their platforms to keep people on, and in the future I want to be less susceptible to this. I'm pretty sure that I am at least a little bit addicted to social media, and it definitely affects my life. Like many others, some nights I'll go to bed way later than I planned or I'll get distracted from homework because of social media. It just overall is a problem that I've been trying to deal with.

Even though I did get annoyed with thinking about these ads and homework while I was relaxing, it is important to have media literacy. Even though you would only analyze the ad on the surface for the thirty seconds that it plays, you can still get a lot from that. It might not be about the really deep implicit messages, but I think that you can definitely identify some of the techniques that a company uses in their advertisement. Being able to identify this and the other aspects of media is important. People need to be aware of how they're being affected by these techniques. Some of the advertisements can lead a person to be irresponsible or lead them in the wrong direction while trying to sell their product. It is also healthy to just be aware that their products will probably not fulfill what they said it would. People should actually know who they're trusting and giving their business to, and also what the consequences of doing so are. 

Keeping this blog was actually more interesting than I thought it would be. I always saved the posts for the weekend to do, but I didn't mind keeping an eye out for an interesting ad or a story with media that I would enjoy writing about. There was more to a commercial than I really thought there could be, and trying to find out more about its backstory and reactions to the ad was really helpful in expanding my interaction with the ad. Even though this was homework, once I started writing on my blogs, it wasn't the worst thing. For the most part, I was able to write about media that engaged me. And by doing that, I feel like I actually put more into the analysis of media than when it was something that I did not want to sit down and write about. I was able to practice picking apart a brand or their ad, and after this whole experience, I feel like I am a more educated consumer and that my media literacy has grown. I'll always be surrounded by media, but at least now I'm aware of how it's constantly changing and affecting me.