Mass media affects our lives every day. It surrounds us and is imbedded
in everything we see. The messages of its writing adorn our T-shirts, books,
magazines, billboards, posters, newspapers. Mass media and its writing exist
everywhere we look, so naturally it has a huge amount of influence in our
lives. Since mass media is such a large part of our lives studying the history
of mass media can help us understand the meaning of life.
Mass media consists
of everything that exists, beginning with speech. Before the invention of
writing messages were conveyed entirely through the spoken word, or oral
tradition. People would remember vast amounts of text in the form of stories
and poems and then pass them down from generation to generation. Eventually the
oral tradition was replaced by the stories being reordered, first in pictures
and symbols, and then in script. Still, the oral tradition has a huge amount of
influence in our lives today.
Because of the oral
tradition humans have the capacity to remember large amounts of information,
though this is often unnecessary in the present. Still, the skill is there,
having been passed through genetics from our ancestors whom once relied on it
to pass down there legends and culture. As well as giving us the capacity to
remember large amount of information, and speaking skills that we use today,
the oral tradition also led to the invention of writing.
Writing, in both
pictures or symbols and script makes up everything in our lives. We recognize
certain symbols as meaning certain things, and certain letter combinations form
words that have a particular meaning. The history of these symbols and words
create their meaning, and without knowing the history they would just be a
bunch of shapes and scribbles that no one would understand. The same goes for
language. If no one knows what the combinations of sounds that form words mean
then the language is meaningless. Therefore, the history of them is really
quite important because without their history they would cease to having
meaning which would make them basically cease to exist. Then, if we no longer
had language or writing life would cease to exist. Language and writing in mass
media make up such an immense portion of our life that life without both would
make communication impossible. Since communication is such an essential part of
our lives, the loss of ability to communicate would then lead to an inability
to live.
As well as being a crucial
part of life, the meanings behind the words and symbols that make up language
and writing is also very important in our development. The stories that we read
and hear are often very different and in many cases are complete opposite views
of the same idea. Because of this we must choose what we believe. This is
evident in believing in religions, evolution, the creation of the earth,
supernatural beings and superstitions, history, etc. What we choose to believe
influences the rest of our lives in many ways. It leads us to form certain
opinions, think a certain way, and act in a certain way. It influences what we
will believe and how we will act both in the present and in the future. The
present is a result of the past and the future a result of the present so what
we believe and how we act has an enormous amount of impact on what will happen
next.
Because of the
influence that the past and the present have on the future it leads me to
wonder about time, destiny, and free-will. Is time something that is set, or is
it relative? Does free-will exist, or destiny, or both? To me both exist. I
think that we have the free-will to make decisions, and that those decisions
affect our destiny because they influence what will happen next. I also think
that time is a relative thing, and that there is no true past, present, and
future. Instead, I think that all three are occurring at once. I think that we
are at any instant just frozen in one moment of time, but I think that the
moment we are stuck in is not the only one that exists. It is like watching a
television show, especially reality television. The events that you are seeing
have already happened, such as one team winning the Super Bowl, but because you
do not know the outcome of the events you view them in the present instead of
as a look at the past. The same occurs in our lives. While we are in the moment
we view it as the present, and when that moment is passed then we call it the
past. However, there is no real past, present, or future. By the time we
perceive the moment we are in, it has already become the past, and the next
moment that was the future has already become the present. And since we do not
know the outcome of our future, we cannot truly know if we are living in the
present or if we are simply a recording of the past being played back.
Therefore, time is a relative thing. We are never truly living in the present
because to perceive it the moment must already be in the past, and the moments
that we cannot perceive are the future. This leads me to think that the future
just goes directly into the past, without there really being a present.
What we believe in
life is an enormous factor in how we think, act, and develop as a person.
Furthermore, by having an impact on our actions, which in turn affect our
future, our beliefs are very influential towards our future. We form our
beliefs by deciding which stories we are going to agree. The stories are
conveyed to us through mass media, originally through the oral tradition, then
from paintings and drawings, then from scripts. Now they come to us in all three
forms, taking shape in radio, newsprint, television, and the internet. The
different media outlets try to influence what stories we will agree with and
believe, and there by influence what will happen in the future. Companies try
to influence people to buy their products so their sales will increase. Books,
magazines, and newspapers try to influence people to read them so that their
popularity will increase or so their information can influence them to think in
a certain way or about a certain subject. Every piece of media has some kind of
goal, and is therefore some kind of propaganda. The propaganda of media then
affects how we think and act and there by affect our futures.
It is important to
understand the history of mass media because mass media makes up our lives.
Everything is written, said, drawn, painted, designed, and created with a
purpose. It is meant to make us feel a certain way, think in a particular
manner, or perform specific actions. These actions then affect our future, and
affect who we are as a person. Studying the history of mass media teaches us
the meaning of life because it is life. Mass media is embedded in every pore of
our being, and without it life would cease to exist. The mass media we
encounter, and what pieces of it that we choose to believe, make us who we are.
That in turn determines how we view the world and what life means to us. Mass
media makes up the meaning of life, but without knowing the history of it the
meaning is lost. You cannot know something truly without knowing its history
because it arises from its history and without it there is no meaning at all.
Life would just be a jumbled mess of shapes and scribbles.
