Reflection Post (6-7-2015)

On Wednesday night, my dad had to go to Best Buy to get a GoPro and I decided to come along. I had the time of my life while I was there. I spent about 15 minutes playing Super Smash Bros, and then saw all the Apple products so I took pictures of myself on every different Apple device they had there. Then I found another computer that was touch screen so I checked the weather for the next week, found it was going to be hot, and got disappointed and left that computer. After that, I found another computer that had a stylus and drew pictures on the computer with it. I kept going on like this, from computer to computer until I would get bored of one and my dad said we were leaving.
Since I have been in critical thinking I have realized that I constantly get temporarily absorbed in various technologies or forms of medias, but it doesn't really fulfill me. I get bored very quickly, and need to be stimulated in some other way quickly. I'm thankful that I now know this, because I can more effectively keep myself from caring more about media than real life. I have become aware of how much I really listen to advertisements and now when I see them I rarely even listen to what they're saying, I just try and find the hidden message. I also have found that I am annoyed with everyone else who doesn't understand how manipulated we are by different forms of media surrounding us. I don't think media literacy is vital, I mean millions of Americans live their lives without thinking twice about implicit or explicit messages. However, now that I know a little bit more about it, I don't want to go back to not knowing about it. Now I feel that I can have a tiny bit more individuality than I have had in the past, even though I still engage in lots of media.
A lot of this blog was me writing posts last minute about things I wasn't super interested in. I'll give you that one. But, it did force me to pay much more attention to media around me on a regular basis, not just at 7 in the morning. When I saw ads, I would think of them in terms of topics we learned in critical thinking, not how much I wanted to be like a celebrity, or buy a product. I have formed a habit of that now. When I see ads, I have a game that I play of trying to find the different messages and techniques that are being used before I actually think of the product. I also am always wondering how different our world would be if everyone could think about media instead of just absorbing it into their personality and being. That one I don't think I'll ever know the answer too though.