TRUST ME; I'M LYING.

"Whoever controls the media controls the mind." - Jim Morrison

One of the biggest challenges faced by the society today is controlling their own mind. How often do we see a person with an original opinion? How often do we value a person’s opinion? Be it something as major as wanting a particular prime minister, to something as trivial as choosing a movie to watch, we blindly follow what the media says; rarely questioning it. Being a media student myself, I still come under its influence. No, I’m not trying to say “Lady Gaga wants to control our minds”. That is not the case. She is simply a small part of the huge system that is the mass media.


Mass media are media forms designed to simply reach the largest audience possible. They include TV, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, records, video games, and the internet; basically everything under the sun. We don’t see such a large network of communication owned by the common man. It’s for the common man, by the elite. Confused? Let me break it down for you. When Reliance (owned by Mukesh Ambani, one of the richest men in India- elite, didn’t I tell you?) took over Network 18, which owns CNN IBN-one of the best news channels in India- nobody was surprised to know that it was the death of Media Independence. Following the takeover, was a massive drop in the information provided to us on the negative side of Reliance Industries Ltd. And when we do not see (or not allowed to see) the negative aspect of a situation, we blindly believe that the subject in the situation came straight out of the Bible. Does this mean that our independence to think freely and have our own opinion is under danger? One word, yes. Your brain is dead meat.
My point is that an ignorant population does not know its rights, does not seek a greater understanding of issues and does not question authorities. It simply follows trends. It simply follows the media. Popular culture nurtures this ignorance by continually serving them some brain-numbing entertainment. Some feed them by spotlighting degenerate celebrities to be idolized. I’m not saying media’s influence is always bad. My point is that the extent to which you let it influence you is bad. If you ask me, “Is there a way to stop this?”  Yes, there is.
STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP AND MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS.

True, that media just influences us and our decisions are our own, but what if you’re influenced to such an extent that you believe there are no choices? Let me give you few examples from different sectors.

1. When we elected for Mr.  Narendra Modi, as Prime Minister, (Oh please, you and I both know we didn’t vote for BJP, we voted for Modi) how many of them truly weighed pros and cons that would follow, and how many of them went with the herd? Around 65-70% of India’s population would fall under the second category. Modi, with his excellent PR and Advertising agencies, wiped out the thought from our minds that other candidates existed too. Remember the famous slogan, “Abki baar Modi sarkar”? Remember how memes and statuses emerged up in thousands of numbers and everybody was sharing it? Yes, it seems funny now, but go back in time and think about it. If it wasn’t for the media’s influence, would you really be campaigning? In fact, half of them didn’t even know that in the process of posting a status as a joke, they were indirectly campaigning for him.

2. Justin Beiber. How many of you hate him? Woah, that’s a large number! Okay, hands down. I’m not a fan myself, but why do you hate him? If you have a genuine reason, then you’re excused, but if you don’t, then whose influence are you under? The media.  Half the people don’t even know why they hate him. They haven’t heard his songs, they haven’t seen the videos, neither have they seen him making out with a guy. But no, they choose to look beyond the obvious and hate him.

3. Ever got a shampoo with some hope to have hair like Katrina Kaif? Finished the disgusting packs of Kellogg’s K to get a figure like Deepika Padukone? Even flaunted a style like Tom Cruise from one of movies, or tried talking like Benedict Cumberbatch from Sherlock Holmes? What are you really doing there? If it weren’t for those serials and advertisements, which product would you choose? Whose style would you copy? The media packed these products like little Christmas presents and kept them there, and man, were you fast in grabbing the presents or what!

4. Finally, the social media! We live in a generation where a life without Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube isn’t considered a 'life' in the first place. “Dude, what’s your Facebook ID?” “Uh man, I don’t have one!” “What!? Dude, get a life!” We don’t notice how we keep going back to our pages, like how I keep coming back to this blog, we keep checking for notifications, and we let online game rule our world. Of-course, we live in an era where social media is necessary to show our existence on earth. But at times- influenced by media- we fantasize about our life so much, that we lose perspective of it.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.”

– Thomas Jefferson