Mass Communications - A Social Protocol

One of the greatest achievements of humanity is the digital age itself. Through a medium, humankind has gained the ability to preserve, process, and provide information. Advanced technology and digital applications has tremendously increase our ability to access information. It has become a natural resource; existing for any individual to take. One can construct, consume, critique and challenge a medium. However, these actions must be done simultaneously in order to fully grasp the relentless force of modern mass communications.

Strict and destructive in nature, the modern media is paradoxical. Users constantly make new applications and break through creative boundaries; but it is also place of confinement where individuals are expected to conform and follow. Having grown up during the explosion of social media platforms, I believe that the media is a double-edged instrument. For every compliment that exists on a social media platform, there are hundreds of barbaric comments. It emphasizes on the power of words; although it may not break any bones, it does have the ability to bruise the soul. While Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat serves as incredible resources for learning about the world it also constructs and dictates the ideal image of life; it determines what I will be aware of and what I should care about. Your likes, interests, and concerns: You are who your Facebook page says you are.

The digital world has constructed a sense of exclusivity within the social realm to the extent that much of our experiences are identified through shared mass media events. Despite coming into fruition from the idea of connecting the world socially, the social media platform has become a figure of authority, permitting what one can do or cannot do. Without social platforms, you lose your privileges and access to certain things. For example, without a Facebook page, you are unable to like a Restaurant page for a free beverage. It has become an important tool for social connection and interaction with great benefits. Although the media, in its immense growth, has developed an infamous reputation, I am who I am because of the media. Growing up, I played numerous online video games, a place where insurmountable interactions occurs daily. These interactions have built my identity and how I perceive my surroundings. My early exposure to the media led me to the importance of media literacy- to not only construct and consume but to also critique and challenge the things I see and hear. It is not about how you can eliminate the bad out of the ever-growing digital world but about how you can learn to live with the good and the bad that comes with the digital age.