Media's Effect on Society

This week in sociology we watched a couple different videos about how media, such as television can shape the way we think. I thought it was ironic that we were watching a movie on tv that talks about how we watch too much tv, which was brought up in sociology as well. The show talked about how company's were making toys for little children based off tv shows or movies that they watched, such as ninja turtles, Spiderman, transformers etc. It also stated how girls from a young age were starting to get the impression that the only way you could ever be pretty was to be skinny. We read something off of sal's blog that said women in Fiji thought being big and round was considered beautiful, but after shows like 90210 came out, girls from Fiji claimed they had purged at least once to try to lose weight. We don't realize how much media effects us. Especially from such a young age, it almost brainwashes us right away. The show we watched also talked about how people who create commercials, measure the amount of times children blink during certain commercials. They aim to have children not be able to blink at all because they're so mesmerized by what they're watching. There are so many ways media shapes us, but since they start at a young age, we hardly notice.