Mass Media: A Boon or a Curse?

Mass media is (according to wikipedia): A section of the media specifically designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries.
Mass media includes Internet media (like blogs, message boards, podcasts, and video sharing) because individuals now have a means to exposure that is comparable in scale to that previously restricted to a select group of mass media producers. The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda.

So my little blog is also a little piece of the mass media pie. But my question is this... is it a boon? Or is it a curse?

In my opinion it has the potential to be both... and indeed... it is living up to its potential... but not only its potential for being a boon... but also a curse...

The positives of mass media are many... and are of great significance... but its the negatives which I want to discuss here... because it is those negatives which have been gaining momentum over the past few decades...

I am talking of the evils like media bias, glorification of immoral and illegal behavior, sensationalizing ordinary events, invasion of privacy, perpetuation of certain superstitions etc etc.

People have told me... if you dont like it... dont watch/read/listen to it... i.e. pretend to be a Deaf-Mute (Credit GITS and the late Salinger). I have tried... Really... I have tried to ignore some of the worrying trends I have seen in the youth of the world today... all a result of the pervasive nature of some of these aspects of the mass...

UNDERAGE DRINKING/SMOKING

I see larger and larger numbers of underage teenagers drinking and smoking everyday... a combination of a multitude of factors... easy availability of tobacco and alcohol notwithstanding, there is also the peer pressure they must deal with... the "everyone who is 'cool' must do it syndrome" as I sometimes term it...

But who are the ones who made smoking and drinking 'cool'? Who defined that? Mass Media... in the form of movies, TV shows, sometimes books... (sorry bout this Salinger... but you did it too...)...

I am not asking everyone to stub out their cigarettes and pour their drinks down the drain... I am asking them to think about why they chose to pick them up in the first place...

CASUAL SEX

It is now considered uncool not to have had a multitude of sexual partners before marriage... again... a trend which was popularized by mass media... particularly western media... which the Indian media has been trying to emulate... (truly a sad state of affairs that...)... This is something I am not as much worried about... so long as it occurs between consenting partners... who really are 'into' each other... but often times I see couples which are formed simply because: "well... all my friends have a girlfriend/boyfriend... I didn't want to be left behind"...

There is a growing trend of competition for the number of 'conquests' that have been made (this holds true for both for men and women)... which is something I cannot bring myself to accept...

Again.... a trend popularized by the mass media... and again... I am not asking all of you lovers out there to run away and elope and get married or practice celibacy before marriage (assuming you ever get that far)... I am asking you to think about why you are doing what you are doing... and think about whether you really want to do it for yourself... or just to be considered 'cool'... and to consider how any insincerity on your part could cause significant emotional damage to your partner...

INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Like they say... all things in moderation... unfortunately the spread of mass media has caused the spread of the "instant-gratification-culture." Everyone wants everything to move fast and to get instant results/pleasure... Not a bad thing to want... but it should set off alarm bells when we see ourselves completely forgoing... even deriding all other longer paths to the same goals...

Relationships used to be built up over time... nowadays its more like a collection of one night stands... Any sport where there is no heavy hitting real time action is considered totally boring... Test Cricket... Baseball... etc etc... The trend of moving towards having everything done in shorter and shorter times is not new, and is certainly not a bad thing... it is part of human nature... It is a good thing to increase efficiency... but sometimes the price we pay for that efficiency is terrible... and we often times dont even realize it...

CRIME/VIOLENCE

People nowadays are exposed to so much violence via the mass media... its phenomenal... I wish I had verifiable stats.... but I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that more people see more violent scenes in one form or another everyday these days... than they did before the advent of mass media... and this is having a startling effect on our youth... even children...

I heard of a terrible case (Thankfully not in India) where a young boy was killed by a couple of 10 year old's in a pretty gruesome manner... I believe it was in the UK...

But even in India... I have heard of several disturbing cases involving teenagers and young adults... rape, kidnappings of friends, beatings, murders even... This is not normal... and it IS a problem we need to face up to... I am glad that we don't have as many guns floating around in India (in the hands of private citizens) as there are in the USA... In the USA... school shootings occur every few months...

----------------------------------------------------

The fact is mass media is so pervasive and so powerful that everything they project has a significant impact on us all psychologically without us realizing it.

Mass media (intentionally or not) implants images in impressionable young minds... when they are not mature enough to make educated decisions about their lives... when they are in their rebellious phase and do not want to listen to their parents even... Now there is the potential to implant both good and bad things... and it is my hope that we are able to get mass media to focus more on the good rather than the bad... It is not a question of age restrictions on media... because its a well known fact that the more you try to keep adolescents from getting/doing something... the more likely it is that they will go to extreme lengths to get/do it...