Media Consumption Reflection: Media vs. Culture

Media consumption is such a part of everyday activity that it practically goes unnoticed in today’s society. We are more than consumed; we are bombarded, with advertising, music, celebrities, television, and magazines. So much so that advertisers say that their message or advertisement has to be good enough to “break through the clutter.” Though the irony of this is that by breaking through the “clutter” they are essentially creating more clutter! And what is the clutter? Is the clutter media or culture? Are media and culture one in the same, or are they counterparts of each other?

The haze surrounding these questions proves just how much consumption society is saturated with. Collecting research through my media consumption journal was actually a bit more difficult than I imagined for several reasons:

First, how would I define media? Should I stick to recording data solely on television, music, and internet? Or should I include data about advertisements I saw, stores I purchased from, and how frequently I used my cell phone? Although these are not necessarily considered media, they are certainly channels the media can go through. For example, texting might not necessarily be media, but what about word of mouth? In my media journal I noted that I received a text message from a friend informing me that the MTV Video Music Awards would be playing that night, something I would have otherwise completely forgotten about, so I turned on the TV and started watching it. Another difficulty I encountered was trying to remain aware of my media consumption. The media is such a part of my daily activities, especially as a communications major where I even have media consumption in class, that it was tricky having a more objective point of view and saying, “ok, I’m not just listening to music, I’m consuming media.”

Through my research I noticed that I routinely listen to music. The first thing I do every day on my way to class, and between classes, is plug myself into my iPod. “Plug myself into my iPod,” even that sentence shows how hardwired society has become with consumption—there is no longer silence to enjoy the sounds of a beautiful day, instead there is a soundtrack to a beautiful day. Another routine I noticed was that I rarely turned on the TV. If I watched TV it would be socially or because it was already on and I would get hooked with the programming. If I did turn the TV on myself it was usually as background noise because the room would be too quiet or because guests were coming over, simultaneously with music from my laptop. I prefer to watch my shows online—there’s less hassle, if any, with commercials and I can watch any show on my own schedule. Most of my media consumption is independently during the week, but on weekends a lot of it is social.

As previously stated, when friends come over my roommate and I usually have both the TV and music from our computers playing at the same time…sometimes even in the same room. Through this research I found that consumers (in this case I refer to consumers as people that consume media, not necessarily shoppers), especially those of my generation, tend to have a heightened sense of selective hearing. Both the TV and iTunes can be playing, but if the music is good or if the TV is not playing something entertaining enough, then we only pay attention to the music. But we can listen in such a way that we forget the TV is even on, even if it is loud enough to compete with the music.

One of the things I have found most interesting is that I find myself wanting to be consumed with media and pop culture. For the past couple years I avoided television, rarely listened to “popular” music, preferring “un-cool” music, and my only real sense of pop culture came from word of mouth or reading the tabloid covers while in line at the grocery store. Even on the internet, I would only visit the same sites. This year, however, I find that I have turned into a media junkie. I want to watch all the new movies; I want to watch the video music awards. I want to download the songs every one dances to while discovering “up and coming” artists, and I even click link after link to follow the buzz on various “culture objects”. This is what surprises me most about my media usage.

I am not surprised about how much media I consume because I know that, this year especially, I have been doing a lot of consumption, but rather the fact that I want to be consumed. I usually download music through various web channels, but if I buy a song or CD on iTunes it is because I like the artist enough to want to support them. It is my way of saying, “Please keep making more music,” which in a way relates to the articles and videos we have been going through in class. Although consumers are so inundated with media and products, consumers have become savvier as to what they want to purchase or be involved in, and what they want to ignore. There is a constant need for “new” because not all consumers gravitate towards the same things; therefore there are always new markets to explore.

The term "culture" can be defined as “the best of what has been said and thought.” Upon reflection, I have come to understand culture in a way that I hadn’t seen it before. Culture is deeply rooted—today’s culture is not a new culture, it is just an evolution of earlier times. It seems to me that the great cultural objects of today have been inspired by someone or something else. This only includes those objects for mass consumption, not for example the latest invention of robot technology (yet), but rather something that has completely transformed society and the way we interact, such as the creation of the internet in the early ‘90s or probably the most recent being the iPhone. Rarely do we now see a truly original idea.

I was recently watching a football game on TV with a couple friends, and instead of saying “my friends are probably going crazy about this game” or something of the sort, one of them said, “Facebook is probably blowing up right now!” In this comment he was referencing to his friends on Facebook getting really competitive and excited about the game and probably making comments about it through Facebook to other friends. Instead of living in the moment, we are constantly thinking about what another person may be saying or how we are going to blog about it with others. It is as though we have more than one life going on. Twitter is another great example of this. It is like we are trying to make things happen, trying to have a more exciting life, so we can have better “tweets” or posts. This reflects culture as a pattern of behavior.

So what does this mean? If people are creating more exciting lives for themselves in order to have a life that everyone wants to read about online, and this is a pattern of behavior influenced by media, then what has been lost? Or perhaps, instead, what has been gained? Have consumers become more artificial or have consumers become “cooler”? I have come to the conclusion that media and culture are counterparts of each other; one cannot survive without the other. However, this distinction is becoming increasingly blurred. My reflection on media consumption has not answered many questions for me, but has instead raised questions on a much more profound level, forcing me to question the world I live in and even what person I may possibly become as a media-driven consumer.