Bigger Picture

Everyone values their own right to have individual beliefs, ideas and a free will. B.F Skinner, a behavioural psychologist in the 1940s stated a controversial idea that is still debated often today: the idea that free will is an illusion. Behaviour is studied in the fields of psychology and sociology, which encompasses the science behind how we act and how we are controlled by a wider scheme of things. The concept of an uncontrolled freedom lie beneath how we unconsciously mimic society’s norms. This is guided by media, influential people and social media. The above mentioned concepts guide humans unknowingly to perceive things differently, motivate decisions and develop habits. There is bigger social force regulating who we are and how we make choices, people are controlled by society’s public influences.
Media is a mass form of communication, this includes television, movies, news sources, magazines and the internet. The media in modern day culture often outlines how one should act, how people should look and what is socially appropriate. These standards conduct the population to follow what we see in the media, however, media is not always the most accurate phenomenon. Media producers aim to show the best version of society, which is made possible by editing and false advertising. Television and movies often escalate the idea of reality. The false reality demonstrated in various media sources can lead to one’s real life expectations to increase. This assumption creates society’s vision of an ideal life. People in society try to mimic exactly as they observe from media sources and other people.
Eventually people follow their peers, community and the media, in fear of being out of conformity. This conformity resulting in a trend. The idea of society copying media and following social forces led to success in the fashion industry, as well as other well-known social trends, proving the force of a controlling bigger picture. The importance of media, however,...