Media: The Bane of Goodness

So on Sunday I attended a "discussion" led by a power point presentation and kid who I felt knew very little of what he was talking about. And guess what, the discussion was on the media. He went on for perhaps an hour arguing that an over-exposure to media diminishes creativity, intimate relationships, and life in general. He made some ok points, mainly in that many of us should probably cut back on certain forms of media use, but after all that I've learned in this class and all that I've spent time examining this semester I couldn't help but be a little upset by what he was trying to say. I think often people want to blame various forms of modern media for all their problems and label it as the bane of all that is good. In essence I don't believe we're necessarily any better or worse as a people than when we didn't have all these forms of media. We have a lot of worse things we are exposed to in today's world, and we have a lot better things that we are exposed to. The ratio doesn't seem to change to me, we're just exposed to more and different things. Moderation on an individual level I think is important, but in all things, not just media. I don't think that we necessarily have to shutdown our facebook pages, turn off our phones, and limit our music intake to achieve proper balance in our lives. All of these things I believe are beneficial to an extent and well worth holding on to. Sometimes there are better things that we can be doing with our precious time, but let's limit ourselves through self-control and not elimination. I have had moments in my life where I felt the media (such as my TV intake) was controlling me a bit instead of me controlling it, and so I'm often one of the first people to rag on the negative and dangerous effects of the media. But overtime I have realized how much of a blessing it really can be, and how it's much better to see it and use it in that way.