What is Real and What is Not?

Ethan Sands
es700016@ohio.edu

In today's day and age, kids are trying to find themselves and are going above and beyond to do it. Whether it be through social media, experiences, or professional help, kids have found ways to either associate with the social norm or step outside of society's boundaries to become their own person. But, more often than not...they crumble underneath social pressures to be like everyone else.

As young adults, kids struggle to find the medium between reality and media. The media portrays a certain image that can negatively impact its' viewers. Though the people who see the content grasp an idea that the content is invaluable or against them, they are drawn to it anyways. This is more often than not due to the comparison between what people have on these media platforms that the "real" viewers do or do not have.

Preventing Falsehood

How can we prevent viewers from believing hecklers, false stories and astroturf operations? First, let's define these types of media so people know what to look for. Hecklers and astroturf operations are social media pages or accounts that have predetermined opinions and set out to portray them with a closed mind. False stories are based on the author or someone involved attempting to play-out a certain perspective for the world to see. Now on how to recognize these media outlets. The clearest form of verification is fact. If there is an error of fact or a lie told, like in the story about Josh Shaw, then there is no reason to believe the story and the easiest way to find the fake is to check other sources for the same story. In the journalism industry, if an editor sees a compelling story that their newspaper or online accounts can profit from, they will jump on it. This is so they can gain more publicity if they can gain more information or evidence than the other papers did.

Social Media

On the social media side of things, it is a little harder to detect fake accounts. A good sign is if accounts are commenting on the same topic in very similar ways. An example of this was when Kevin Durant created burner accounts to counter hecklers about the Thunder organizations. Just like Durant, hecklers and "human astroturfers" make mistakes when it comes to switching out accounts and can be caught.



But the scammers aren't the only media that young adults need to look out for. There are plenty of beauty magazines and sites that are outright and personal about their ideas and beliefs. The reality that they don't show you is the background of the models that they use that can distort the view of "perfection" for viewers.

Advertisements
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Courtesy of The Politic

This Dove advertisement is a great example of their views towards race. This advertisement depicts a "cleaner" version of a human being when in reality, they're illustrating that African Americans are dirtier than Caucasians. For young African American women, this can be demoralizing to the idea of beauty standards. This isn't the first time that society has witnessed the ideals that Caucasians are prettier or better than African Americans in experimentation or advertisements.

Experimentation

In 2010, Margaret Beale Spencer designed a pilot study that would reiterate a study done in the 1940s that was eventually used to help desegregate schools. The study was to analyze children of both races, black and white, to see what doll they would prefer between a white and a brown doll. Even though the black children could see themselves in the brown doll, they chose to pick the white doll instead. This is because of how they grew up through society and have learned to think that the white doll is "nicer" or "prettier." Spencer was able to concur that. "we are still living in a society where dark things are devalued and white things are valued."

Conclusion 

These studies and advertisements are clear indications of how children and young adults can be influenced and affected by thing they see, perceive and think. It's highly important to be able to recognize the real from the fake. While also being able to understand how advertisements and stories can affect the lives of who see them. Not being able to see behind the curtain can lead people to be someone they aren't and don't want to be.