"The medium is the message" was a cryptic-sounding end note that our HS102 tutor Harry left for us at the end of class one day. Well... I wiki-ed it (how academic), heh, and the what came up was a description of the idea and the name of its author. Basically its about implicit and underlying messages that within different kinds of media. However, the other websites that I checked failed to give any concrete example to illustrate what it meant.
I had a couple of thoughts about it last night. I think that two words that describe some of digital (or electronic) media's underlying messages would be 'perspective' and 'presentation'. Thinking about the way the media is able to portray perfect images and misrepresent society (either through censorship or by tugging on our heartstrings and distracting us from details) made me wonder about whether I and the people around me are being shaped in ways that we don't give much thought to.
Is the 'perfect image' an idea that is becoming more and more dominant in our minds?
More than perfect presentations of physical beauty, I wonder about the perfect characters and personalities that we follow in our television shows and comic books.
Characters on TV always have some points of their personality emphasized over others. The Dark Knight doesn't showcase Bruce Wayne eating his three meals a day but tells the story of his stand against crime and his unwillingness to compromise on his integrity. The ideal enchants us, and in our actions and thoughts we shape ourselves to becoming more like him. Yet, with any good ideal, there will be those who truly bear its standard and those who knowingly or unknowingly wear it as an outer covering.
Representations of everyday life in the media are what worry me a lot. I believe that if artists were given more free reign, there would be more nuanced and realistic stories out there for our viewing (pleasure?) consideration today. However, stories undergo a lot of censorship from corporations (viewer ratings) and governments (government policy. Liberalism/Conservatism, Birth rates, the list goes on). We end up with stories that focus on only a few dimensions of romantic life or everyday life (Note to self: How is this similar to the idea of single-strandedness?), and I just think that we end up with unrealistic expectations and doubts about ourselves as we try to conform to these seemingly realistic character traits... Hmmm. Okay just to clarify I'm not dealing with any repressed issues of identity here. Haha. I think that it is causing our view of others to become too simplified.
I believe that, in general, exposure to media has made us more adept in the way that we present ourselves... It's harder to know what is at the bottom of a person's heart. I think we're starting to know ourselves less and less too. Self-help books promote positive uses of self-imagery and self-fulfilling prophecies, but do lasting changes result? ... We can believe in that power to change ourselves through conscious regulation of thoughts and actions... I do believe in change from within and without, and sociology has been hammering in the idea of change from without into me for 4 months now. Haha... Certainly the wish to be better is very real, perhaps just as important as 'existing' as a person with apparently good thoughts and actions. Even when we know we don't have the right feelings or perfect, ideal motivations, we should still go ahead and do what we think is right (even though we know there is something in it for us too), because withholding a good deed for not having 'right motivations' is just another form of narcissism, obsession with the way one looks to one's self. Even if we don't have right thoughts, we can still choose to act out what we think is right, and pray to God to change our hearts.
Yet while I admire the ideals and standards of my storybook heroes and my friends around me, I can't help but think that a quick tongue, a disarming smile, and perhaps even congruity of actions and conscious thinking can belie a lack of... truth deep within... I guess it's just a part of life that we'll never fully know ourselves or others.
I guess we'll never really know till seasons of trials and tribulations arrive... I wasn't ready to drive... Maybe I'm not ready to be good at sociology either... But today's sermon really spoke to me in so many ways and about so many different things that it overwhelmed me. Maybe the unexpected happenings on the day before HS102 was God's way of showing me how many more ways there were to approaching the topic and how narrow-minded I was being. Or maybe he was just telling me that I got too cocky and slacked off near the end. Haha. Either way, I'll be pro some term soon, because as our great leader LKY always says, it's all in your genes. Bwahahahahahaha.
Pontius Pilate once said, "What is truth?" ... So what is it? Is it simply just fact? "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" is from John 8:32... I don't have any conclusions, but right now, if I could liken truth to a mirror from which we can see ourselves, then people can use broken pieces of that truth to cut people... But the fact is that I'm still seeing what I want to see regarding some situations. Somehow I feel comforted that I haven't lost sight of that, and yet sad that is has to be this way.
Note: Declarations and Proclamations. The Best Things are Left Unsaid.
