Media has a high influence on the way people in a society think

Media has a high influence on the way people in a society think.

Do you agree with this statement? Provide some reasons to justify your answer.

I agree that to an extent media influence the way people in a society think. However, this impact varies between different age groups. For example, teenagers feel the impact of media to the maximum extent.

For example, young teen girls aspire to look the next top model or the next pop star. It is a true psychological fact that when people see the same thing over and over again, it influences their believes and behaviours. It may also make people do things they would have never done before but now the media makes it appalling to them.

Knowing the fact that media influences people, advertisers try harder and harder to come up with new ways to catch people’s attention through newspapers, movies, magazines etc.

Watching movies and TV programs takes us away into a different realm and their effect lingers for much longer even after the movie finishes. For example, after watching the movie Spiderman, the young children start behaving like Spiderman, even walking and talking in the same fashion for days together.

After watching action films, children try to emulate the movie hero, engaging in similar kinds of violent acts since the hero becomes successful in the end. Even in the cartoon shows, everything is not good natured. Children tend to copy the weird characters and pass on the ill-behaviours to friends.

There have been cases in the past when teenagers have committed suicides imitating their favourite actor/actress. An explanation about these sinful acts that people particularly, youngsters are not able to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

Hence, it is true that media is influences the behaviour of people in society by inculcating the minds of people with false notions and morbid imageries. Violence and disturbing societal issues have a long lasting impact on the minds of people. This increases the misbehaviours against other people and this creates a vicious cycle among individuals as the attempt to do the same or even worse things to others.