Media Blog Reflection- Log 12

As mentioned in my first post, media definitely does affect my life in many ways,  but I am not overwhelmed by it.  I do not really consume that much media because I just do not have enough time.  I get up every morning at 6:30, go to school, I am at home for 10 minutes after school and then I go to rowing every day.  I don't get home from rowing until 7:00 and I have to eat dinner and shower and then do my homework.  Because of this, I cannot give myself the luxury of consuming media because I would never have time to sleep.  The media that I do involve myself with does not really affect how I live my life, but because of this media blog, I have definitely seen more of the possible impacts.
The main way that being aware of media, and all of the things that I have learned, affects me, is advertisement based.  When I see advertisements, I often think about the techniques they are using and any fallacies that may be involved.  It annoys my sister because I will randomly say "that is an appeal to tradition," or something that has to do with what I have learned.  I would not say that I am more resistant to advertisements though because I would never go out to buy something I had seen an ad for, so that has not changed.  Nothing else has really changed because of what I have learned because a lot of it just reinforced my ideas I already had about media.  While it may not have affected the media that I consume and how I deal with media, it could definitely affect a lot of other people.  It is super important to have media literacy because of the understanding it grants.  The amount of media that our society consumes is insane and people need to be able to understand it and, resist it.  The creators of media, Google, Facebook, Apple, and all of those companies, only have one goal.  That is to get your information and your money.  To do this they need to influence you, which only happens if we are just consuming the media and not thinking about it.  To avoid this, people need to have media literacy which comes with being an educated consumer.
Media and technology scare me because one day the big corporations will have so much more influence on us, more than the insane amount they already have.  In one of my other blogs, I talked about The Creepy Line, a documentary that talks about these topics.  If people watch this and learn what I have learned this semester, they will be able to resist the impact of media more.  If so much of our society is being influenced, what does that say about us?  To me, it says that we are not worried enough to spend the time to become educated about media.  For example, the "10-year challenge" trend that was started by Facebook has become a huge thing.  Some people are mindlessly posting pictures of themselves without thinking about any risk or real reason behind this challenge.  Other people are using it to spread awareness by posting pictures of deforestation over 10 years or melting icecaps.  While this is really good, it is also sad because the same people that post these pictures forget about them and move onto the next challenge.  No real action is being taken.  People talk but never act.
This media blog is a little ironic because a lot of the time in my posts I am talking about the importance of privacy, but giving away a lot of my information.  At the same time, I now know the importance of privacy and what I can do to keep some of my information safe.  The media blog has taught me a lot about looking deeper into experiences I have on the internet.  It forced me to look into them and learn from them.
Lastly, I  just want to emphasize the influence media has over us.  It is insane how much people can be influenced and, how much media takes advantage of that.  Keeping information private, and learning more about media and having media literacy are super important because it allows us to avoid a lot of impacts that come with living in today's society.  This media blog was a really valuable experience that I have definitely learned from and will change some of my habits because of.