The Power Of Media

A quote posted in Newsweek in the mid-80s announced that “a single, college-educated woman over the age of 40 was more likely to die from a terrorist attack than ever get married”. A quick Google will tell you that this was inherently false it didn’t matter at the time. It was immediately followed by an uproar and of course, a stream of self-conscious, paranoid women who were staring at their naked ring fingers. All it did was fill everyone’s heads with ideas of having a picket-fence home, at least two kids and somebody warm to cozy up to every night. For centuries media has always been a powerful tool to influence the masses and there are several, even more, tragic examples in which it was used (but I found this one more funny). However, the facts remain the same. Media has always had an impact on the populace but quite recently it has taken a turn for the negative.

Today where media has pretty much flourished and can be accessed at virtually any place at any point in time, people often underestimate the amount influence that it has had on the average person. It goes beyond just outrageous click-bait articles such as "I make $5000 a day working from home. Discover how!" or "Lose 50 pounds in just 20 minutes!" or something. Nowadays media is no longer just about informing the general public, it's about harnessing attention. No matter how stupid or controversial or just plain absurd, if it gets you to click the button then it's good! This has had several negative impacts on the people in general because the content tends to either harm people emotionally, lead people to do dangerous things or waste time investing in some stupid technique created by somebody who got bored and started putting characters in a line. The worst effect is probably how the overload of information has depleted people's attention span. Specialists have even blatantly stated that today, the average attention span of human beings is now lower than even that of a goldfish!

The big question is, how does one protect themselves in such a turbulent time? The answer is and has always been, focus. There has never been a point in time before this one when people have had drown out a lot of the harmful content that people encounter every day. If you are one who is easily swayed by every juicy sounding title, chances are you will spend a lot of time distracted by things that really matter. The best way to prevent this from happening is to invest in developing focus – the best way to cut through the time-killing distractions we see every day.

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About Makomborero Marumisa