Influence Of Television On Society

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The entertainment world: How does television actually influence us?
Within today’s society, it would seem like television has become an almost norm or the way of life compared to the postmodernists views on entertainment. Nearly everyone has it, watches it and more importantly has been influenced in some way by the effects of these moving images becoming ever more present in popular culture. Some call it pointless, others inspiring, but how does television actually affect those who live in a contemporary style of life compared to the more traditional forms or culture?
Simple entertainment or simulative content could end up turning into a massive influence in mass cultural behaviour, leading to our emotions being taken on a roller coaster of
A study completed by Karin Raeymaeckers, a University lecture within the department of commutations stated that, “media or television usage by people viewed by individuals who were 16-18 years of age where more likely to substitute learning or reading time for these forms of entertainment”. While influencing by these forms of media is very present within everyday life, just because emotions can be invoked doesn’t mean anyone everyone is going to copy the exact actions they’re shown. People may say that they want to sometimes “kill someone” but these words are usually thrown about in social slang rather than actually meaning it. A good example of this is Goffman’s theory of self-presentation. This theory tells us that when people act in different ways by putting on “masks” in order to feel accepted or also engage in certain social activities to avoid embarrassment. These masks are mostly complete personality covers and while people do enjoy changing their persona or acting like someone else after watching these sources of media, a factor which does make a big difference to how someone reacts depends on the culture they are within. This more easily is known as finding your “social identity”. The social identity theory tells us that people like to find comfort within things they feel most at ease around. There are a variety of things which influences this such as social groups, family or friends, but this influence isn’t always a negative. Social identity is developed through various ways and if television helps a person find who they are in a positive way, that shouldn’t be argued with in that situation. Everyone is different a just because one person feels more comfortable finding their social identity within his or her social group; another may in a completely different manor.

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