Everything has its positive and negatives. The media has a tendency to be painted in a particularly bad light, and so I’d like to focus on its potentials in the development of human consciousness.
A part of modern day media that I’d like to speak about is the influential contenders, which really blossomed on social networking sites. Alternative news contenders like collective evolution, spirit science, mind unleashed, and so forth, are groups that saw an opportunity to be really effective in making a difference to the way we receive daily influence through scrolling our Facebook newsfeeds, and made a significant move closer to the change we’re all pointing towards.
And for this I salute them! They continue to provide a daily dose of inspiration in what could be seen as one of the most important media aspects of the generation. After all, most of us today periodically attend to our devices to absorb information which serves as an influential contributor to which we conduct our days activities; lives, and accordingly usher in the next age of the planet for the rest of us.
With this perspective, social networking holds promising keys to both progress of the new and dissolution of the old, the balance between which is maintained by our individual choices. We can have too much of anything, and need be aware of venturing into our indulgent side. Whether it’s drug and alcohol abuse, or the abuse of food, shopping, social networking, and so forth, the problem is one of our own, not the technology we’re using. And so a balance should be maintained between researching new information, and listening to ourselves with the information we already have.
And of course it’s not just social media which serves to influence us in such a way. Certain news channels, whilst being in a grey area regarding some of the information we wish to see, are being forced to adapt and keep up with a certain ’new age criteria’, or lose their relevance in light of the new emerging online sources. Russell Brand being an example in his recent influences over the more mainstream media sources.
Looking at Hollywood, its movie productions can be seen as another source, which play a big role in the development of mainstream consciousness. Glimpsing over the years, we can see how its input is making a sizeable impact in the way we view things. Films from further back like 'Pay it forward’ and ‘American beauty’, up to modern day productions such as ‘Avatar’, ’Transcendence’, ‘Lucy' and ‘Interstellar’, the influence of Cinema on mainstream consciousness and pop culture has really beneficial potentials.
A recent DreamWorks’s film ‘Inside out’ explores the concept of emotions as externalized characters, which operate the mind from a control room in the brain. The film deals quite effectively with how emotions can be experienced simultaneously as it follows a girls journey through adolescence. It’s a really fun concept, and undoubtedly a beneficial thing for children to understand.
In the sense of distinctive culture being washed out by a media propelled culture, I feel like in the aspects discussed previously, balance will refine what is relevant and what needs to be updated. In the same way we refine ourselves; we hold on to what we feel is a significant reflection of what we aspire to be, so to does a culture.
As humanity grows closer globally, many cultural similarities will occur, but just as with people who wear the same clothing; they both possess their own qualities. Transcending culture can be seen as an expanded sociological version of what’s happening psychologically as humanity transcends race, religion and other such boundaries. And in the same way ingredients need to be mixed with care to ensure a proper binding, dissolution of the boundaries occurring today needs to happen gradually and within balance to ensure a smooth transition.
-Mat Wood