If I see a blonde on Rodeo Drive, I will figure we have nothing in common... and not because I hate shopping. On the other hand, I anticipate open and like-minded people at the independent bookstore. If a man of interest never makes eye contact with me, then the feelings probably aren’t reciprocated. Besides the subjects taught in school, what our parents showed us, and ideals we gather from our friends or peers, where else do we gather social or general knowledge? The formal lessons from school, parents and friends are so miniscule in comparison to everything else we know, we think, the way we manage our day-to-day and how we think about the future. This outside knowledge is the basis of choosing and interpreting body language, our choice of tone and words, our choice of action and so on. The unthinkable amounts of lessons learned outside of the classroom are not only exercised daily, but sweepingly accepted- and nobody really stops to ask, “Why do I think like this?”
Those who know me would likely predict I’m going to tell you the media is responsible, but the truth is that I don’t have an answer. Media is certainly my leading theory, but I can’t pretend to know the answer to a question so deep. All I can offer is support to my theory and hopefully encourage some critical thinking.
Movies, books, news, TV, radio take responsibility for teaching us things that don’t fit in the grid of school or parents. I’ve found that every ordinary reaction I have or mediocre choice I make is drawn from expectations and assumptions. If I text a friend, I expect a response, if I don’t get this expected response, I assume something is off (given the assumption they’re not busy). I expect that if I walk down Rodeo Drive I will deal with pretentious blondes that are uninterested in things beyond their designer bag. Obviously no scenario of life is guaranteed, no matter how predictable or recurrent past experience is, so why would I expect such things? Media teaches us and our role models (considering that behavior observed through others is most likely behavior derived from media), how to expect the world is or should be. If we took media away as an option for social learning, what would we be like? Would our instinct stay in accordance with how we currently behave or how we currently interpret others? Would I still have this resentment toward blondes shopping on Rodeo, or eagerness to make time for bookstore conversation?
Agenda setting is how news and media determine what stories are newsworthy. As a journalism student, I’ve had personal experience with changing, editing and framing stories to fit into a more relatable perception or different angle. These agendas are basically someone’s experience in life that has now been translated into an across-the-board norm.
It’s a house of cards that’s a force to be reckoned with. Crediting all of our basic knowledge of cause and effect to sources with possible conjecture, probable opinions, and definite misrepresentation isn’t comforting, but it’s all we have. It’s impossible to try and challenge every frivolous thought that lifetimes have worked to establish. Instead, the importance of doubt and critical thinking grows exponentially; we must sift through what matters and question the norm, the accepted and the forsaken.
