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Are Your Thoughts Your Own Analysis

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Are Your Thoughts Your Own? In today’s technology-based society, there arises a question. How much do the everyday things that we do affect us. If we were to take an inventory of how much media we let ourselves be influenced by every day, we would be shocked. When you read a book, watch television, or look at a magazine, you are opening your mind to the opinions represented. However, it is not the obvious messages that are the most dangerous. The scariest opinions are the ones that are hidden in subtle messages that maybe only the subconscious picks up on. There are many ways that a person can be influenced to change their ideas, thoughts, and even personal beliefs. In the article “Media's Use of Propaganda to Persuade People's Attitude, Beliefs …show more content…

It makes sense that this mass-produced, easily-accessible technology would be a main source of propaganda. According to the article by Manzaria and Bruck, “those who control and have access to media have access to and potential control of public opinion”(Media’s Use of Propaganda). The people who are in charge of controlling the media are the people who have the power to shape public opinion to their ideas. The only way to safeguard against letting whatever those subtle messages are to affect you is by being able to recognize them. One of the ways that media uses propaganda is by taking into account societal norms. This means that the media plays on your rational skills by putting things in a way that you see what they want you to see. In the article by Hope Edelman, she talks about how she thought marriage would be be. She thought this because of the way that the media portrays marriage. Hollywood had influenced her belief on how a marriage should work. She thought that she should be able to split everything fifty-fifty with her husband. Hollywood shows marriages in the movies where the husband and wife get along great all the time and they share everything equally. This is not the real-life …show more content…

Take into account all the magazines everyone sees in the checkout aisle, the billboards everyone drives past, music everyone listens to, and even the ads on the radio have their own influence. Once someone realizes just how much media they are exposed to and have learned how to recognize it, it will be easier to keep from being persuaded by the subtle messages. It will be easier to find out what subtle messages behind the obvious message. Sometimes the main, original message of something is harmless. However, when looked into a little more critically, the subtle messages can be full of wrong things that would never be accepted unless they were only presented to the

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