As a student, there is the ongoing idea of "repetition." Repeating a certain action, phrase, speech, practice, skill, or anything else should in theory allow one to become more proficient at the given task or practice than they were prior, yes? In idea yes, however, not everything will work this way in life. For example, it may be in your best interest not to simply reread the entire chapter of a textbook before a class test or a final exam. While you are revisiting the entire collection of information, what are you truly benefiting from? Is there value behind reading the acknowledgements of a famous poem when you are trying to review the syllable count per stanza? Probably not.
A side from traditional repetition, there is another idea called "cultivation theory." Cultivation theory looks into the visual aspects of the world around us, by calling upon the concepts or actions we see in life on a frequent basis. These visual aspects may be found across a wise spectrum of media, such as through magazines, daytime television, new broadcasts, radio shows, and even from the very people around us. In fact, as we, the consumer, continue to observe these concepts in the media time and time again, we will naturally begin to associate those actions as a part of our reality, even if this mean inflating it out of realistic proportion (Hanson). No, this does not conclude people are necessarily becoming more crazy than what they were before, but rather we are "fine tuning" our media to become more and more provocative to subjects and themes we as humans have a desire for. Whether this involves unrealistic professions, romance, lifestyles, storylines, and so forth.
In 2015, John Oliver presented a segment regarding the subject of torture on his television show, "Last Week Tonight." During the informational session, Oliver hints towards lame and eye-opening situations involving the United States and detained prisoners of war. In fact, Oliver goes on to exclaim "torture is something that is advertised to work, but it doesn't" even though torture is well incorporated into our regular media. This ultimately leads us to be partially convinced utilizing dirty tactics towards other humans will work each and every time, which is false. If you want something which will work to the end of time, again and again, try the Pythagorean theorem. Oliver additionally references a few public polls publicised by CBS, regarding public opinion on torture. Those would include: "Is Waterboarding Torture? 69% [yes]," "Are aggressive tactics like waterboarding sometimes justified? 49% [yes]," and even "Aggressive tactics provide information to prevent terror attacks: often/sometimes. 57% [yes]" (Torture...). Is it an American thing to voice "yes" to hurt others, who we view were trying to harm us?
This is not the say the general person living here in the United States has a dim light inside their spacious head, but rather many people, although not everyone, are under the impression of the wrong reality due to being presented an unrealistic reality which in turn, influences their impressions of the world. Parts of the American public are convinced torture, including its variants, are functioning factors to force people to “spill the beans” when it is indeed, not. The influence our media has on us as humans is very well significant, and the cultivation theory proves itself: what supposedly used to be “action packed thrillers” have slyly become “torture filled nonsense.” These forms of mindless media are tricking people into looking at life as if it were scripted, whereas any and all problems crease at the end of the day. There very well are problems around the world each day; and frankly, going against the Golden Rule, will not help resolve our issues.
Works Cited
Hanson,Kristin. "Mean World Syndrome." Kirkwood Community College, 23 Mar. 2017, Cedar Rapids. Lecture.
"Torture: Last Week
Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)." YouTube, uploaded by LastWeekTonight, 14
June 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmeF2rzsZSU. Accessed 27 Mar. 2017.
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