Negative Attitudes That Are Driven By The Media
|Although the Granite Fitness blog is about health, we sometimes like to shake things up a little by exploring a slightly different topic. Today’s topic happens to be on the media. Like it or not, we spend most of our day bombarded by various forms of media, and this might directly or indirectly shape our attitude when it comes to health and wellness.
The first negative attitude I want to talk about is poor body image. Hardly surprising given that this is a health-related blog, right? In the western world particularly, figures of idealised physical perfection is all over the media, particularly magazines targeted at insecure people.
Ethical fitness motivators like me always stress that you should be striving towards good health more than physical perfection. However, my advice often falls into deaf ears because my words of motivation lasts only a few seconds, but media bombardment about how ugly and unattractive fat people look are all over the place. Argh!
The next thing I want to gripe about is the entitlement mentality the media gives us. Both men and women are taught to not “settle for less than perfection” when it comes to finding a partner, with sex appeal at its very core. This becomes a problem known as “roaming eye” when we start to feel entitled to sex with attractive people to fulfil our own hedonistic desires. I don’t have to tell you what the direct consequence of this is.
Stereotypes are something that is inevitable but very real. I do not have to spell this out clearly because you would be aware of it. The targets for stereotyping these days are based on categories such as race, religion and gender. Men are pigs, women are skanks, Muslims are terrorists, Black men are criminals, Asian men are asexual, single women are defective… blah blah blah. As if we are not made to feel insecure and inferior enough already, these stereotypes certainly do not help.
On the note of stereotypes, another bone I have to pick is the way the media overplays the mentality and role of cliques. You might notice that certain sitcoms focus on particular ethnic groups. This might create a false impression that a certain town is predominantly of one race and social class. We all know that there are all kinds of people in this world, and in every town. Even the rich suburbs have poor people lurking around.
Fear mongering is another one of those things that the media always focuses on. Think of the last time you watched the news and there was no mention of some natural disaster, bloodshed, shootings, or some kind of violence-induced crisis. There is an unhealthy obsession we have with danger, and the media has a role in fuelling all this paranoia.
Overplaying artificial communication is also another thing I want to whinge about. I am sure you would have come across conversations on TV where people hurl insults and wisecracks at each other, and that forms the basis of the whole conversation right? Well, this is nothing to aspire to! In real life, if you were taken hostage, you do not try to get out of the situation by being a smartarse and verbally burning your captor, right?
Finally, the last one I want to address is mindless consumerism. This is one of the most destructive ones. We are almost brainwashed by advertisers to buy this, buy that, buy on credit, buy on layby or loan. If you think about it, does the huge screen plasma TV or the sports car really add to your quality of life that much? Or will it land you in debt which you will struggle to pay off? Wouldn’t you rather spend that money on a holiday?
Anyways, I’ll end my moaning and complaining here. I do not want to give the impression that I hate the media. There are some elements of the media that are good. I especially like the independent media and community broadcast stations because they feel more authentic and genuine, and represent the grassroots rather than the interests of the elite.
However, I would strongly suggest that you spend some time in the outdoors or in an environment where the media cannot be blasting adverts into your face all the time. Remember that there is a world out there full of natural beauty for you to appreciate. I’m not telling you to be a hippy like me, but I am saying that there is more to life than simply endowing yourself with material goods.
Seeing how I blasted mindless consumerism in the last few paragraphs, I have to come clean and say that yes, I am someone who is hoping to make some sales with my products, which are of course advertised on this blog. However, I would like you to learn more about the Granite Fitness Solution, Travel Fitness Solution or any other product before buying them.
If I tried to goad or coerce you into buying my products, isn’t that encouraging mindless consumerism, and wouldn’t that make me a hypocrite? I’m all about keeping it real, as you can tell from my blog posts.
Peace out
Mark
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The only media worth following is the independent media. We know at least they are less likely to have hidden agendas.
I have a distrust of the mainstream media!