Is Media Vital To Everyday Life?

In today’s society media is an essential part of our day-to-day lives. It allows us to communicate and reconnect with people around us and across the globe quickly, efficiently and in a variety of ways e.g. television, radio, magazines etc.

People have benefitted massively from the advances technology has made within very few years. Without these advances there wouldn’t be as any life changing developments, such as developments made in life changing medical treatments.

The media is also a good source of entertainment and information making most things in life much more accessible to everyone. Without information being so easily accessible, we wouldn’t be as aware and knowledgeable about modern day issues such as increases in certain cancers or war developments.

However, with social media becoming more and more involved in our daily lives through the use of phones, social networking sites, and email etc. the amount of face-to-face contact with peers and co-workers is decreasing as there is no longer a need for it which could lead to many people becoming socially isolated and having a lower quality of life.  

Media can used irresponsibly and can have a damaging impression on people who are easily influenced, young people in particular, having a large impact on their views of themselves and the world around them. For example, anorexia and bulimia have become more common amongst today’s youth and much of this has been blamed on the media showing far too many images of models and ‘celebrities’ who are underweight or anorexic themselves, leading young people to believe this is how they want to be or believe they should be.  

So, overall I do think that the media is very beneficial to not just our daily lives, but to life as we know it as many scientific and medical breakthroughs could not have happened without the media’s helping hand. However, I wouldn’t say it’s vital as it is possible to live your life and learn new things without the use of media. Having said this, media has grown considerably in the past few years and no doubt it will continue to grow at an accelerated rate. And as we are all affected by media in some shape or form, I think that the media will become vital in order for us as human beings to move forward and carry on developing and I think in the future the media will play a much larger role in our lives, if it isn’t already.