Pop Culture: Does Media Have an Effect?

In our society today, a lot of our blame on low self-image is placed on the media. For some reason, humans have elected that they would have higher self-esteem if they were not always bombarded by giant posters of fit men and athletic women or magazines filled with skinny models. It is obviously the reason young girls and boys presently starve themselves or work out far too much. The truth is, that the mass media does affect how we think, but do we really need to go far as to presume that without these images, self-appearances would be changed?

Young adults with anorexia or other eating disorders cannot just accuse the media for their sickness. It is a mental illness, and something as severe as a consumption dilemma cannot merely be induced by posters and magazines. There is something bigger in that picture. Occasionally, it can be due from abuse, neglect or because someone else close to the victim has had one as well. As bad as broadcasting can be, it is not the principal issue when it comes to self-starvation.

Our media is filled with images of celebrities and models. We enjoy attacking and making them feel like they trigger our negative self-esteem. We similarly relish placing responsibility on them for the abhorrence we feel towards our own bodies. We constantly compare ourselves to them. However, they are not at fault. Why should these figure heads who happen to be skinny or have small body types be the cause for bulimia or anorexia? Yes, most of us hate the fact that we cannot look like the petite Mila Kunis or be as fit as Michael Jordan, but instead of focusing on fixing how we feel about ourselves, we just complain about how these people are causing us to be negative.

The problem we have today, is that we always compare ourselves to everyone else. It is a pernicious habit and in our nature as humans. The media itself glorifies celebrities and wants us to believe everything they say. They want their audience to keep reading and will post the most outrageous things just for the attention and drama. But, mass media would not have this kind of power if we did not encourage it. We need to stop buying magazines that make us feel bad about ourselves and we need to stop idolizing these sources. Without us as viewers and readers, they would have to change their methods.

Think about Perez Hilton. He is famous for trashing on every celebrity! All he does is make horrible comments about people, yet he is worth millions, precisely because people still read his writing. This needs to stop. Why do we give him this kind of attention? What he is doing is horrible and should not be respected. This goes for every other awful source out there. If we stop reading and buying these horrible materials, then they go away. If we stop focusing on the media, we will be so much better off in general.

If our society stopped caring so much about what the media says, then things would be so different. Maybe people would start feeling better about themselves and learn that they do not have to compare themselves to anyone else. Why should we care that Khloe Kardashian lost 10 pounds or that Sharon Osborne got a face life? Why does it matter? We act like these magazines articles are the gospel.

Media does not benefit us, especially not in the long run. People complain about these celebrities being so rich and famous but it is really because we care so much about what these “high society” people are doing. It is obvious that social media hurts our society. Yet, it is almost addictive to us. We have to know what everyone else is doing and saying, and in the end this is only hurting us. These people are celebrities only because we make them celebrities by admiring and trying to emulate them.

Humans need to start focusing on themselves. Stop paying so much attention to magazines about gossip and go out for a jog. You do not need to lose weight because you do not weigh as little as Keira Knightly. You do not need to go to the gym more because you do not have abs like David Beckham. Lose weight because you want to, not because our media has altered your view about what a normal body weight is.

Media is so screwed up and awful. Nothing good comes from it and people need to step away from that world. As soon as we do that, people will be happier in their own lives and will be happier with themselves. We could finally begin to understand that celebrities are just people too. If we move away from these sources and sites then people like Perez Hilton get no attention like they deserve. It will tell our youth that they should not care about what everyone else is doing. In the end, this could only bring positive results. Media is full of lies and we let this happen because we let media control our lives. This needs to stop and it needs to stop now.