Journal Entries #2 (Ch. 3 response)

Yes, of course negative stereotypes still exist in the media today. For example, there is the stereotype that all teenagers now are unruly, depressed psychopaths, immoral, have no respect for authority, and/or have some kind of problem with drugs/alcohol/porn. There is a good number who have that sort of problem, but it is extremely frustrating to be judged just because you are a young teen. You have almost no respect at that age. I think another negative stereotype that exists in media is against Muslim people. I'm pretty sure they are not all anti-Americans. There are some very nice people I have met over the years that are Muslim and I'm pretty sure they didn't have some crazy plans to take over the country or whatever.

Yes, I think there is a very very strong possibility that people will be immersing themselves in the world of mass media to a point where they begin to tune out the real world. It's already happening! There are people around the world who go for days without food or sleep who sit playing a computer game all day! There have been people that have died from exhaustion by cutting themselves off from the real world and immersing themselves into a virtual reality that the world of mass media provides. When people try to escape the real world by immersing themselves into another superficial one constantly, they eventually become ostracized from the real world. Thus, they lose their ability to communicate with people face to face, and a lot of genuineness or authenticity is lost in conversation with others.

When people do begin to overly distance themselves from the outside world, they lose a lot of skills that they would have had. For example, if Sally was to talk to her "friends" through means of only texting, facebook, and/or myspace, it would probably be much harder and more awkward for her to talk to people face to face or even over the phone. She would lose her ability to communicate with others in person. Cases like this were apparent all over my High School. I knew several kids who would come to school, keep to themselves and be shy most of the time, and then go home and facebook, myspace, text, play video games, or whatever. That's why it's extremely important to find a balance of our use of Mass Media. Too much of good thing can be bad, and so is the case with Mass Media.