THE FEED

  (Image credit to Banksy)

Do you notice that we 'consume' media? We don't 'experience' it, or look at it. We don't listen, read or understand it. We consume it. Like we consume food. Food, eating – something we cannot control. A human has to eat, right? So, in turn, we must consume media. It is necessary. Right?

I don't think so. Unlike food, we won't shrivel up and die without media. I think that we live in a society controlled and consumed by media. Advertisements have filtered their way in to our public spaces on the backs of buses, subway tunnels, billboards. Screaming out messages and ideals like angry gorillas you simply cannot ignore. They've made our way in to our houses, our kitchens and backyards, our bathrooms. It's almost like we can't get rid of it.

We receive most of our information in what is called a 'feed' now. Ironic, right? To be 'fed' media? Oftentimes, we don't have much control over what we're being fed, either. Newsfeeds that have a HUGE bias against them, little sneaky advertisements squeeze their way between posts that we're interested in (or maybe not so sneaky – I hate you, popups and flashy ads – ughh!). Sometimes even our favourite authors and bloggers sneak in 'sponsored' posts that end up being blatant advertisements for certain products**.

I'm hoping that through this series, we'll all be able to understand the media we're being 'fed' a lot better. But before we can do that, we need to take stock of what we're being fed right now, in this moment. We need to get a baseline reading on how much media we consume, while we're still trapped in it. This will be an invaluable resource for the later activities.

So, your assignment for this week is to take stock of what media you consume. Grab yourself a little notebook (or make your own here, or here) or even some scraps of paper – anything that you can fold up and carry around with you for a few days. And write, record down EVERY bit of media you take in (be it the sign of a store, to that weird billboard that made you uncomfortable, that one commercial you hate, or that song you LOVE). Write it down.

Do it for a few days. I want you to do it for at least a solid 24 hours (yes, if you remember something from a dream, write it down!!). I know you can do that. If you're keen, do it for a full week – it would give you plenty of material to work with. The more you write, the more helpful these observations will be in the future.

If you're having trouble with this exercise, here's a quirky tip to try: play pretend. Pretend you're a scientist, an alien, discovering your culture for the first time. You have NO idea what these people are doing. Observe it from an objective point. Do not let your mind chime in and say “Well, the radio isn't as bad as TV...” or “This poster isn't really media...” Take stock of everything like you're never going to see it again. LIKE THE VERY FABRIC OF THE FUTURE HANGS IN YOUR HANDS. Separate yourself from the media, and casually record what you're seeing, experiencing.I promise, it will be worth it.

Good luck! Stay tuned for the next article to come.

THE BUZZ

 (Image credit to Banksy)

I went back to my childhood summer camp a month ago. Walking around in the peace and quiet, the not-so-silence of nature, I felt a sigh of relief escape from my body and mind. I couldn't place it at the time, so I kept walking, taking in the scenery and laughing with old friends.

It wasn't until I got back home that I realized that silence, that feeling of relief, wasn't that of true peace and quiet (because we all know a forest is quite loud in reality) but of technological silence. And further than that, I consumed no media. No electronic devices are allowed at the camp. No cell phones, no TV, no electricity. There was nothing. What usually was an endless drone of words and thoughts and ideas and images was silence. Nothing. And it felt fantastic. 

There was no buzz. No electric hum echoing from the devices, from the news, from the posters and the billboards; no buzz was echoing through my head. 

Now, I'm not here to whine about how we all need to unplug and untangle ourselves from the technological mess we've all got going nowadays – I think we all know we do, plain and simple. I'm going a bit deeper here. Very few of us know just how much media we consume. Nor do we realize what we consume on an daily basis.

What do you mean, media?

Here's a nice simple definition I swiped from dictionary.com:

Media (noun, plural): The main means of mass communication (esp. television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet) regarded collectively.

So basically media is everything and anything send out to the masses. Be it a pamphlet, a commercial on the television or an article on the internet. Heck, even this article I'm writing is considered media.

So what? You ask. It's just media.

So what? The media we consume has morphed itself in to a machine. Our very society is dependant on us purchasing products we don't need. And to do that effectively, means promising (or selling) the potential customers not only a product, but an idealized lifestyle as well (well get in to this more later). This machine is not built for our benefit – in fact, it is built to our detriment. And the fact that we've grown so complacent to it, and that it has infiltrated every inch of our own lives (hello bathroom adverts – ew!) is quite a frightening concept.

I firmly believe that everyone should take a media awareness class. After taking in the first of many lectures and articles about media awareness, critical theory and media analysis, and they changed me. Suddenly everything that I watched, everything that I listened to, experienced, read, meant something. Suddenly everything that I took for granted, passively accepted as truth, was something much deeper, and in many cases, much more sinister.

Suddenly I could pick out biases. I could see when a commercial was trying to tell me something I didn't want to hear, or didn't believe in. I was noticing the pieces of media that really 'hooked' me, that got me intrigued and excited, and the media that made me feel awful and gross inside. After a large period of shell-shock from seeing all these messages hidden within seemingly innocent things, I became grateful.

I began to be able to understand why people thought a certain way. I began to understand that not everything represented in media is equal, or true. I learned to read between the lines, and at once sensitize myself to it, to understand and sympathize with the biases within media, and harden myself so that I wasn't as affected by it.

To put it frankly, I viewed media in a much more positive way, for myself and for, eventually, the betterment of the world.

And I hope that through this series, you can do the same thing. It's not always a fun process, nor is it an easy one, especially since almost all of us have grown up with a constant stream of media flowing through us. But I am almost positive that by beginning to understand, and later critique and pick apart media, you will not only be making a positive impact on yourself, but eventually on the world, too.

We live in a world that is constantly being force-fed media – so much that we don't even notice it anymore, or even fight against it when someone attempts to bring themselves and others away from it. So please, if you're feeling resistance to this, take a step back and look at how media has influenced you – today, a month ago, a year, your entire life. Look at how it affected you as a child, or your own children. By taking a look at how effective media is at getting us to do what it wants, and the mammoth-scale in which we consume it, it's paramount that we understand the beast we're dealing with.

Because those who can understand media, not consume it, will be able to rise above it.

Will you join me?

The Simple Superhero: Origins

I have a confession to make.

When I was little, I really, really, reaaaalllllyyyy wanted to be a superhero.

I had the whole thing planned out – from the outfit made of PURE AWESOME, to my powers that GOT THE BAD GUYS in an INSTANT. I had planned out my epic squad of unbeatable awesome that would eventually fight to usher in an era of peace, safety and love for our fellow humans. It was going to be the. Greatest. Job. Ever.

But then, I kind of realized, that the superheroes in comics were just kind of...impractical.

Who really wants to be a superhero when it involves incredibly dorky spandex uniforms, the occasional dorky romance (yeachh) and really, really melodramatic lines? I mean, really, save for the flying, it's no wonder there aren't any superheroes kicking around. I mean – you need to be SUPER to be a superhero, right? Like...laser-shooting eyes, guns, suuuuper ripped muscles, or a killer body, and a serious sense of duty and honour, as well as the ability to execute death-defying (and sometimes gravity-defying) acrobatics in the blink of an eye. Perfectly. And a whole cadre of other unattainable qualities. 

Plus, add in a muddle, apathetic worldview that crushes any kind of desire for change, and my dream rusted and disappeared after a few years. But, like a lot of things this past year, digging through the dirty basement that is the collective information of my life, I came across some old, dusty treasures. Treasures that had long been forgotten, buried under geographic layers of junk and garbage. You pull them out of the mess with a kind of sacred sentiment, and they stick with you, long after you've happily put them on your dresser.  And I have to tell you, I pulled out a giant, glittering, gaudy red metaphorical cape. And I'm kind of loving it.

So guess what?

I have rekindled my dream. I want to be a Superhero, and I think you can be one too. Even you, sitting there, restless but helpless and incredibly confused. And you, angry but incapable of understanding why. And you, dead-end job worker. And you, anxiety-plagued and scared.

And ANYONE else. Maybe you won't be flying around wearing capes, shooting lasers out of your eyes (darn you, physics!) but you can wear a cape! And maybe it won't be as flashy as we're all used to Superheroes being, but it will certainly make a difference.

Friends, I propose to you the Squad of Simple Superheroes. They can't fly. They can't leap across great chasms, or control lightning. They don't spout off corny one-liners and chase villains with giant swords and magical freeze-rays. But, they do fight for a collective cause. They do possess weapons and powers as awesome as laser eyes and radioactive spider bites. And they certainly know how to open a can of whoop-ass on anyone foolish enough to stand in their way. 

But we're fighting for bigger things. This isn't fiction. There are millions of things wrong with the world, pages upon pages of injustices and terror being repeated on a daily basis. And you can't pretend that doesn't unnerve you. Or maybe you can - in that case, we have an even bigger battle to fight. We, the Squad of Simple Superheroes, may not be fancy, we might not be lifting cars and flying, but we can change the world. One simple act at a time.

Care to join me and my incredible fight to change the world? I promise plenty of regular meetings (with cookies!), a really, really cool headquarters, some really meaningful challenges, a regular exercise routine to keep your laser-shooting muscles in perfect shape, and potentially some fantastic capes. 

Because, come on, I know you're just itching to make a difference.