Making Cents out of Teens part 2
The feedback loop (mentioned in my "#tbt to tbh and rates" article) in the media is, as the name implies, a very circular cycle. In terms of PBS's "Making Cents out of Teens," advertising companies analyze teens and show an exaggerated image of themselves back to then. These teens then match these exaggerated images and change themselves to be what they see on the screen.
I used to watch a great deal of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel Shows. Victorious, iCarly, Good Luck Charlie, and Wizards of Waverly Place are among the few shows I indulged in as a preteen. In all of these shows, there is one constant: (almost) everyone is dumb and overdramatic. Though this makes for an interesting show worth watching, it creates very unrealistic scenarios that kids follow. For me, it worked both ways. I used to be very dramatic as a kid and it was partly because of the shows I used to watch. However, as I grew up and matured, I realized how unintelligent these characters were and overdramatized these shows were and I began to do the exact opposite of what I saw on TV. I, in a sense, "learned" from the TV character's mistakes.
However, this is not the case for all people. My little cousin is a fan of Miranda Sings and she speaks in the "Miranda voice" from time to time. Miranda Sings is a harmless, silly, entertaining character, so imitating her is no big deal. However, this attests to the way media can affect us; we imitate what we see on the screens. On the other side, controversy revolving around the hit TV Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why, has to do with this idea. Created to start a conversation about important topics, such as suicide, substance abuse, and bullying, there has been a case in which these attempts backfired. A man imitated Hannah Baker's actions by leaving cassette tapes and committing suicide. This attests to the idea that people imitate what they see on the screens, furthering the idea the feedback loop mentioned in the video we watched in class.
The article talking about the suicide:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/06/08/peruvian-man-mimics-13-reasons-why-leaves-behind-tapes-after-suicide.html
I used to watch a great deal of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel Shows. Victorious, iCarly, Good Luck Charlie, and Wizards of Waverly Place are among the few shows I indulged in as a preteen. In all of these shows, there is one constant: (almost) everyone is dumb and overdramatic. Though this makes for an interesting show worth watching, it creates very unrealistic scenarios that kids follow. For me, it worked both ways. I used to be very dramatic as a kid and it was partly because of the shows I used to watch. However, as I grew up and matured, I realized how unintelligent these characters were and overdramatized these shows were and I began to do the exact opposite of what I saw on TV. I, in a sense, "learned" from the TV character's mistakes.
However, this is not the case for all people. My little cousin is a fan of Miranda Sings and she speaks in the "Miranda voice" from time to time. Miranda Sings is a harmless, silly, entertaining character, so imitating her is no big deal. However, this attests to the way media can affect us; we imitate what we see on the screens. On the other side, controversy revolving around the hit TV Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why, has to do with this idea. Created to start a conversation about important topics, such as suicide, substance abuse, and bullying, there has been a case in which these attempts backfired. A man imitated Hannah Baker's actions by leaving cassette tapes and committing suicide. This attests to the idea that people imitate what they see on the screens, furthering the idea the feedback loop mentioned in the video we watched in class.The article talking about the suicide:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/06/08/peruvian-man-mimics-13-reasons-why-leaves-behind-tapes-after-suicide.html
I think that it is really crazy that people can go to such extremes as to imitate what they see on TV. I do not think it is uncommon to have imitated a made up character as we have seen them on television or in other form of media. When we do start imitating other people the people around us do sometimes times get annoyed either because they don't like the character we are imitating or just find us annoying.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very interesting how people actually start acting like the TV shows they watch. Yes, we are influenced by a message when it is fed to us repeatedly, however it's suprising how influential even the smallest mannerisms can make. Consumers will take these messages to be true because it's what we see on the TV but we don't realize just how artificial they really are.
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