The contemporary world cannot go without the use of the media. It is a result of the post-industrial era and the Information age with information as the most valuable product for exchange. Even without suchlike interpretation, the media has a powerful influence on people’s personalities. It relates to the thoughts, intentions, emotions, and actions in the vortex of different movies, talk shows, celebrity performances, cartoons, and advertisements. People tend to be open to everything they get via the media, as it has become trendy to imitate everything seen or heard via mass media or social media. Therefore, people are constantly under the influence of the media, as it has become a merit of the contemporary human environment. Read the article from professional essay writers.
Today, social media led to the creation of the media society with its values and preferences for different age groups. In this respect, the first category of individuals influenced by media is children and youth. It has become an integral part of socialization for them in cases when they need more resources for understanding their social environment, peers, and everything happening in them. However, studies reported by Süss (2007) indicate, “media can play the role of resources or the role of risk factors for the development” (p. 103). In other words, children are sensitive to different influences in their environment, and social media may simply cause a particular deviation in the development of their personalities.
Based on the increased popularity of entertaining media, like movies, video games, and others, human thoughts and feelings are constantly under attack from the virtual environment. It means that different characters tend to impose their philosophies, vision of life, and challenges one should overcome. For instance, after the release of “The Matrix,” there were many cases when people thought they were in the matrix and tried to fight with other people considering them as agents Smith.
On the other hand, “Star Wars” has become a new religion for people worldwide. Different characters and episodes from this movie are an inseparable part of people’s personalities today. In fact, it proves that entertaining media lead to the socialization of individuals making them more addicted to TV and social media overall (Bradea & Blândul, 2015). According to the research, mass media and social media are now experiencing an unprecedented growth and development, encompassing more and more people worldwide. It means that human personalities are already in a trap of the media.
From the psychological point of view and based on the recent studies, there are both positive and negative effects of media. In this respect, the positive ones relate to the increase of IQ through interactive game playing, girls show better results in sciences, learning methods are varied, communication encompasses different cultures, and media helps in understanding crucial public issues (Luskin, 2012). It is possible to say that, for some people, the Internet and broadcast media are a source of a mental refuge. For instance, when a person comes home after a hard-working day, he/she starts watching media without even making a pause. In turn, it becomes a characteristic feature of an individual’s personality. The same is true for an army of TV fans watching Friday and Saturday Night Shows with celebrities. It is a part of the national lifestyle and culture. In the field of education, children and adolescents are more likely to involve themselves in the realm of interactive video games losing the edge between real and virtual reality.
Negative effects of media should warn adults, educators, and officials in terms of limiting its exposure to the most sensitive groups of individuals. The thing is that fragile psyches of children, adolescents, and adults are able to react to the violence, crime, and pornography in an adverse way. Along with Attention Deficit Disorder and Internet Addiction Disorder, people may become exhausted because of the gradual decrease of sleep hours (Luskin, 2012). In turn, they may simply take it for granted, thinking it is their unique lifestyle, making them happy and satisfied with life.
Additionally, the media influences the rate of emotional stability and conscientiousness as long as modern people are constantly caring about their online image and presence. The findings show the people’s personality traits have a straightforward link to how they manage their online presence getting through the experiences of neuroticism and anxiety (Punyanunt-Carter & Wrench, 2017). The ongoing growth and expansion of social networks are applicable here, showing people’s different identities online as compared with who and what they are in reality. There is a particular shift in personality development as long as individuals tend to reach a particular extent of recognition and adornment from their online friends. However, it is clear that a great number of friends and followers do not mean they are true. It is just a way to self-actualization, which is actually a result of a person’s tendency to inhibition. As media socially affect human behaviors, it depends on “how reactions, sensations, and moods can be changed” (Awan, 2015, p. 6). Hence, there is a constant process of the interrelation between the media and personality development, and it is up to an individual whether it will cause a good or a bad effect.
Therefore, the media affects people’s personalities in different ways. It depends on the preferred media for individuals, their likes and dislikes, and other intentions. Obviously, people have already been using different features of media in their everyday lives and encounters. It relates to their comparisons with some celebrities, TV hosts, and film characters. It is also a particular characteristic of the contemporary human behavior, as with media, people seem to enrich their intellectual capacity and personality development. However, it may also lead to the negative outcomes with the accessibility of violent, criminal, and pornographic media online.