The media is now all around us; in our homes, our cars and even right in our pockets. With the technology ever-improving it may even become part of your body in the next ten years! Of course the media is only for our own convenience and entertainment purposes but what most people don’t realise is how much the media actually controls our lives.

Of course no one likes to think of themselves as brain-dead zombies having information shovelled into their brains but the truth isn’t far from it. Now I’m not saying that the human population just believes whatever is written but you would be surprised how much a simple idea can affect your perception of the world. The medias most powerful weapon is the influence it has over you.

The media has a tendency to only show half the story; the aim is to evoke something from you. It could be an emotion or it could simply just make you think, either way you have acknowledged it and eventually whether it’s true or not you will most likely start to believe it. That thought in itself sounds like the plot for the next sci-fi movie but it has made you start to think. Hasn’t it?

Once the seed has been planted it will start to grow and eventually spread. We, the people seem to have no idea how much influence we have over each other in our everyday lives. If one person believes or feels passionately towards something then others are compelled to believe them. For example, your parents may want you home by 7:00pm before it gets too dark so that nothing happens to you. Whether you actually do come home on time or not is irrelevant but if you were to experience something even slightly spooky you would feel that your parents were right. You will feel the need to be extra vigilant at night.

This is how the media works. By getting at least one person to believe in something the news will surely spread (because no one lives in complete isolation). Collectively people will think it’s true; take stereotypes for example, everyone seems to think that every teenager does drugs.

The media takes up a huge portion of our lives and it can be very useful and educational but it isn't all good, which is where you need to be extra cautious.