On 2 and 4 March 2020, all Form One students of St Joseph’s Private School attended a lively Media Literacy Awareness Workshop led by Mr Mervyn Lee.
Below is a reflection by one of the students.
Media has a really big impact in my life. I spend many hours on my phone either on Instagram, Netflix, Facebook, Pinterest or Tik Tok because they are entertaining. It’s like my phone is my life – all my personal data is in it. This is because I am born in a modern generation where gadgets are so common and they keep on developing which makes us tempted to splurge our money on them.
Other than that, my shopping has become easier, thanks to many platforms such as Shopee, Lazada and Taobao. We can buy many international products online, sometimes for a cheaper price, thanks to the many sales.
Besides that, we can stream movies online with apps like Netflix, Iflix and Viu. We no longer need to go to the cinema or wait for a specific channel to show the movie.
Another big impact is e-books; they are not only convenient but also very cheap. I could spend hours locked up in my room, totally engrossed is some of my favourites.
Moreover, we can also get Grab taxi through our phones. And all we need to do is just press a button. We can also order food from a wide variety of shops.
As you can see, media has quite an impact in my life and possibly many others too.
But it could be a very bad thing too. This is because we, human beings, are being too reliant on our phones. One day, humans will not know how to interact with each other, traditions will be forgotten and the world will not be cooperative enough. Slowly, with a lack of communication in the world, the human species could really cause extinction if we keep up with our bad habits explained above.
As humans, God gave us a brain that can think and a mouth that can talk. We should use them well like getting out of your comfort zone and interact with others, instead of watching Nicki Minaj!
As many people know, the music industry has been growing consistently. It has many genres from jazz to pop. Many of the songs produced either contain meaningful messages or promote lust. These songs have big influence on the younger generation. Eventually many start to mimic the unhealthy lifestyle of artists and celebrities. This is what we call media influence. It can promote low self-esteem and need more parental guidance.
There are some other common trappings in the social media – advertisements. These advertisements use bright and attractive colours, sex appeal, famous faces, free gifts, contests and sponsorship to draw the public to use their product.
In this modern era, women are still targeted for their insecurities, they are objectified in advertisements. I really hope one day these advertisements will show some form of feminism.
Humans need to stop relying on media too much if we want to lead a social and responsible life. Period!
Sara Tham
