The Mycenaean

The media is something that is part of our everyday lives, but is is separate from reality. We are constantly consuming pictures and videos of all sorts — and over time it is glaringly obvious that much of what we see is fabricated or exaggerated in some way or another.

For example, we know that the Kardashian’s lives are not real. The public sees a very over-dramatized version that does not translate to most people’s realities. That extreme level of yelling, fighting, petty comments and selfishness can not normally be maintained my your average human. When you add the fact that photos and videos can be easily edited using a plethora of photoshop tools, suddenly what we are seeing does not have much merit.

It can be difficult to recognize the media as having layers of deception, but over time as people have become more used to the inauthenticity it is easier to not take what we see to heart.

“Growing up you learn
to dramatize everything…[but then] I think age is a lot better with that, it pulls that sheet of reality over you,” said Minnah Gaballah, a junior at LRHS.

We know that our own social media lives are curated — we only show the best of ourselves. While we may often let our friends see our real lives on private stories, there is a facade that we put on our “main feed.” That main feed probably will not get to see our crusty morning-look, our breakdowns over school or work, and our struggles that everyone — even celebrities — face each day.

Therefore, everytime we see one of the Kardashians or any other famous celebrity post pictures of their perfect bodies and fabulous accomplishments, we can take it, in a sense, with a grain of salt because its what we do ourselves.

Society not-so secretly works together to create an online world we can go to when the real world gets tough.

One that lets us imagine our lives differently.

Social media is just a highlight reel.

Luckily, it is perfectly fine to accept and enjoy the real fakeness as long as we remember it as such. As long as we make sure we do not let the online, unreal world control our perception of reality.

When it comes to our television and music, there is so much hyperbole for our entertainment. There are drugs, overdose, self-harm, fighting, and pornography — pretty much anything you can think of that is generally discouraged by society.

Constant exposure to these actions may make people more tolerable of said actions, but they actually do not seem to have much effect on society’s behavior. People still believe that harmful acts such as gang violence is wrong, or that we should not condone drug and alcohol abuse — even though that is much of what our shows, movies, music, and even video games portray.

Why do people enjoy and encourage unhealthy drama?

Personally, I look at the shows I watch as a type of escape from my normal, much-less dramatic daily life. I know what I am seeing is not real, or at least not typical in society, so it is easier for me to find destructive or just plain unreal behaviors entertaining. People often find whatever is different from their own lives more appealing. People who have brown hair want blonde, tall people want to be short, etc.

The same concept applies here — we want to see something breaking the norm of the bubble we live in.
Overall, the message is that what we consume does not equal what we do. We keep what goes on in our screens separate from the facts and reality, which is essential to maintaining healthy lives.