Warning: Unknown Side Effects

What are 'they' really selling? This has been a question that we have entertained in many different facets this semester. Whether it is animal rights, GMOs, pharmaceuticals, technology, media, or any other entity trying to sell itself to us or us to it, they all play in the game. Before this class, I knew that media and brands were obviously all trying to sell us their products for a profit. However, after a culmination of emotions from irritation to excitement and curiosity evoked during our discussions, I have finally come to terms with the dark truth. Behind every advertisement, click-bait on Facebook, and must-run on a news channel, there is an ulterior message being implied. Some are moderate views and others are doused in outdated, heteronormative ideals. Why does this concept bother me? Well, it seems self evident, but if I must...

As was one of the group debates on if media was ruining democracy, there are further implications to these platforms that we know, love, and use every day. The thing that bothers me is not that it is taking place, but rather how imbedded it is in our society and how unbelievably difficult it would be to remove these problems like advertisements from the sites we are using. Why? Well because of the society we live in of course. At the end of the day, these companies are trying to make a profit and that profit comes from their product: us. Whether on a news channel, Tinder, or the highly contested Facebook, these businesses appear to be that they are selling us a service. However, the real money making part (as we all learned and know) is the consumer and our information.

Before this class, I knew there was targeted advertising. I knew that there were some platforms that had skewed views such as Fox being hard republican or specific audiences such as Tinder and younger adults. Yet, I never realized to what extent this infiltrated our system. The problem is so interwoven into the facets of peoples lives that they are simply just a mirror of who we are and what values we deem acceptable. If they, the advertisements, click-bait, and news, are approaching things with certain values, it is because the public is accepting it and saying it is okay. To make enough people bother to change it is the difficult and quite irritating issue at hand. Again, why? Because these advertisements and other contributors aren't going to go away, but the content they are providing to us can change. The challenging part is if we, as a society, are willing to change it.

Thank you to everyone in this class who has said things to provoke me to question my surroundings and the things that I see everyday. Thank you for helping me realize that just because it is "normal" doesn't mean it is the best way, it is simply the accepted way. And thank you Robin and Brendan for taking us on this journey of, if I be so bold to say, enlightenment. This is the most memorable class I have had at the U yet.  Thank you.