The Media of Capitalism Era

A little girl reading newspaper on moonwalk, 1969.

It's no doubt that environment we live in and we experience, daily, affect our personalities. One of the environment that play a significant role in our life is the mass media. Mass media particularly designed to reach extensive amount of the population. But, then this media of course is included in the environment that affect our personality. Of course mass media is independent, yet, not fully independent, primarily the advertising, and entertainment. Definitely, either both are private sector, and controllable by the private sector, the oligarchy of the capitalist class, for their own interests. Unfortunately, most people use their time to get information from both than news media. So, actually while the news media is independent, but up to certain degree the earlier media is still controllable, hence the oligarchy can still control the public. You might ask, then, how is their importance and influence? Later, we will discuss how both influence, and used to benefit a particular group, first the advertising business, and second the mass media entertainment.

The Advertisement of Pears Soap in 1900. Pears Soap regarded as the the pioneer of modern advertising. See how they related their product with the impression of wealthy middle class.

Advertising Industry

I dont know much about economy but I know something. Modern capitalist economy is one of the biggest fraud ever in history. Especially the culture of consumerism, which is intertwined together with and is the most important foundation of capitalist economy. Yes, I know that consumerism is a "fraud." Well, at least the vast majority of consumer campaign.

We know that, since we were children, we are always told that buying a product is a good thing. Ads on the television always show us that buying their product will make their life "better", "easier", or "happier," typically in a dramatic, irrational, and exaggerating manner. Suprising fact I found that buying something doesn't contribute many to my happiness. I don't feel that buying an ice cream or watching a movie makes me happier.

But actually, most products are not really that good for us, and we know that sometimes we don't even need them. The benefit oftenly not that great. How many books have we bought that we haven't read hitherto? How many calorie rich snacks that we've bought when we don't even hungry? And moreover, the snacks are not just we don't need, but perhaps harm our health.

And then, who actually profits the most from the sales of the product? Yes, the manufacturer of course. Arguably, they hold the marketing campaigns, for their own benefit, not for the sake of their consumer. For bigger sales, their profit will rocket dramatically.

Fundamentally, that is the heart of capitalism. I can sell everything I want, at every price I see fit, but you, as the consumer, can buy anything, too, at any price you want. The free market economic system. Knowing this, as a consumer we have to know that sometimes not to buy a product is better for us. We have to be a better buyer, that don't just buy everything we want, and examine what we mean to buy first, how it will benefit us? Do we need it? Or it will But, unfortunately, the vast majority of the people don't know about this. They easily kneel what the media, the advertising want, and become a puppet of the capitalists. Almost no one teaches us this.

The Entertainment

The second brainwashing that is no less dangerous is the mass media entertainment.

Since we just a kid, we are used to watch entertainment. Or I believe at least, the vast majority of modern kids.They usually show life in a particular manner, that sometimes irrational. Especially in child entertainment, rarely we found a content that show sadness, hardship, and depression, that actually stick tightly to what is regarded as life. True, I have no argument that a life of a kid should be free from any kind of hardship and depression, to support their growth, as a flimsy being that is newly born to life.

However, unconsciously or consciously, we as a living being, the environment will affect us at some point. The sceneries we see day to day, in the television, in the social media, and in the billboard will alter our way of thinking, and consequently our behaviour.

We can easily find an instance of this phenomenon, in children. Often we find a child who acts like a fictional figure that he has seen in the television. But if we think, why would this not happen to us, as a mature being? One may argue that as we grow, we will learn that many of the things that we see in the media aren't neither rational nor plausible. Okay, we can easily conclude that fantasional story like Harry potter is utterly fabrication and implausible. But, a more realistic fiction, like korean love drama, or the mighty action films like men in black, will still seem a bit rational for most people, even for us, the mature. Yes, the latter group may seem rational for us, and then we may project the emotional manner and reality to our reality. Yet, if something seems rational doesn't mean that it is true. How many times, we firmly hold that something is true, but then we find later that is false, in our daily life. Sometimes, a truth seems counterintuitive at the beginning, and an error, vice versa, felt intuitive.

Is that even a possibility? I think so. In my own experience, I have ever been like that. When I had just watched a movie about Steve Jobs, it Inspired me so much. Then, I see that the founder of apple is an asshole in his younger age, so after that I started to act like an asshole. This phenomenon happened in my unconscious mind. But later I realized why I acted like that, and I stopped to act like that. Another instance is when I watched the three idiots film. The main character of the film, rancho, is a genius student, but he is mischievous, and often challenge his teachers. Then, for a while, I act like the film over. I had been challenging my parents and teacher, before I realized my fallacy.

I think many other people fall in the same mistake as mine. One notable instance is a phenomenon called werther effect. The famous german classic writer, Goethe’s novel, the sorrows of young werther, was so popular around the European youth of the 18th century. It tells the story of the young werther, who committed suicide with a pistol, after he rejected by his sweetheart, Charlotte who had engaged with a men before. Soon after it had been published, many young people wore the same attire as his. And, moreover, not only posing his attire but many also committed suicide the same way. Many young people felt the novel the same as his case, relevant with their hopelessness, and inspired to commit suicide just as the character.

Why does that happen? Often we are inspired by the protagonist character of the story. They have some sort of attribute that we coveted or we feel related. And, by design, we humans are learners. When we see signal that something will give us what we want, this triggers ourselves to do that. I think this is related with the habit theory, if we define a personality as a set of habits. We learn that someone (Rancho) who has attribute we want (genius), then we think that maybe acting like him (by become challenging) will give us the attribute.

What Are The Consequences of These Phenomena, Then?

Alright, many prophets, poets, and philosophers of the past, once said that the key of happiness is to "know yourself." The first maxim that once inscribed in the temple of apollo, ancient greece, is "know thyself." Yet, then, many contemporary physiological discoveries, agree with that. They discover that the external conditions of oneself, doesn't contribute so much to one's happiness. Hence, the modern physiological synonym for happiness is "subjective well-being." Note the word subjective.

But, then, how could we know ourselves, if our way of thinking, our lifestyle, our emotional dimension is round-the-clock overwhelmed by external point of view, assumptions and instances?

Yes, these phenomena can be really threatening the mass happiness and could affect our happiness, if not handled correctly.

Once again, most of the mass don't know this important fact. And then, consequently, they could easily tumble to the gorge of fallacy at a degree that could affect their happiness. It's not bad to enjoy entertainment, only if we know how to anticipate it and be a wise movie-goer.

No doubt that the entertainment industry is a quite powerful weapon in culture dissemination. Since it a tool, it can be used for promoting goods, or bad, depending on who wields it. Unfortunately, today, the entertainment industry is still too business oriented, than it's potential to promote education, and the adverse effect more prominent. It's cultural impact is so obvious on a big scale, no less on an individual scale, but typically not that obvious.

For clarification, these claims, I admit can't be generalized. Too hard to generalize, because, child entertainment is vary on different countries, in more developed countries the child entertainment is more controlled. But unfortunately, in less developed countries like indonesia, the child entertainment less controlled and often mixed with what should'nt belongs to them.

True, some entertainment is good, and encourage us to reflect inside. But the amount of non-educational entertainment is pretty much more than the educationals one out there.

So What?

The media is a quite powerful tool for information spread, and culture dissemination. It can be used for educational purposes, too. But today, it hasn't been there. And most of the information and content it offers is bad, or at least useless for us. It's still too business oriented.

Last but not least, we have to know what are the do's and don't, good and bad in the media. Again, the media is a tool without a will. It's goodness or badness depends on who wields it. But, the controllers of media mostly come from business, and they of course use it to make money, sometimes, the cost of their interests is bad for us. They could affect our mental health in a bad way. The advertisement in the media, intended to boost sales. Entertainment is a business. Not all bad, of course, but, as we live in a free market economy, hence we must sift it ourselves.

Thanks for my bud, Mahdi and my Uncle who has read the draft of this article and gave me constructive suggestions.

Disclaimer: I admit that my article is not perfect. There are always a possibility that i made a mistake. Any critics or suggestion via comment or email.