Growing up in an age of digitization and painfully emphasized online media, I have seen the chronological evolution of many people's identities according to the internet. Through inaccurate self portrayal and assimilating to the false identities of those around them, it often seems as though we are creating others rather than ourselves. Much of this arises through the disingenuous and strategic creation of an online persona that rarely represents one's true identity. However, in our deficient knowledge of others, it is easy to assume this as rational truth and begin shaping ourselves and our views to fit the same mold.
In media we often see the false representation of individuals that arise from ignorance and oversimplification of large groups of people, both at narrow and broad conceptual levels. Unfortunately, the victims of distortion lie in an underserved part of our population that has continually been reduced to that of a trope. As media continues to cast off certain sects of society, and people falsify their online images, we play into a world of haphazard creation and apathy. A world where little can change for the better in the midst of ignorance and reduction of character. As portrayed in even the origins of mass media, representations of people as groups are never the entire truth, but a fragmented compilation of traits that only partially align with one's character. True realities cannot be presented in any form of media, only represented by means of adherence to few stereotypes that play into the under nuanced narratives of our culture.
In terms of ignorance, there is the failure to represent everyday problems and their relation to the tragedies that formulate our world. When we discuss problems like police brutality, we fail to acknowledge the origins that cause the inflammation of conflict. Things like poverty and racial inequality are rarely explored with close attention, especially before any violent threshold is reached that deems an issue intolerable. The determinants of what is intolerable, unfortunately, are the sect of the population with valued voices - those who do not know the struggles faced by those involved in unrest. By oversimplifying populations and their problems, we fail to address the intricacies of everyday life that make us human, cowering to stagnancy. If only focusing on narrowly constructed stereotypes as means of evaluation, we fail to highlight the value of individuals and continue ceasing ourselves to false classifications.
By being ignorant to the specificity of individuals we tend toward the categorization of people in few underdeveloped terms. Certain archetypes are used to fulfill specific tropes and lead to the assimilation of large groups of minorities. This is often where mass media goes horribly wrong. In mediums like television we see portrayals of people that hold little truth, with clear biases toward the well off and supposed “unproblematic” class of American culture. In many instances, the romanticization of people on television gives the illusion of a lack of conflict, when America is still engulfed in racial tension and division. The limiting range of representation can very well be some people’s only encounter with a specific sect of society, giving a definitive image that is inaccurate and harmful. The harsh organization of people prevents healthy collision and evaluation of people as individuals, producing more generations of generalization and ignorance.
There is no doubt that media has a profound effect on culture and the depictions of socioeconomic groups, taken without question by many people. As seen on a microscale, we are raised falsifying ourselves to fit certain images online. A significant example of unquestioning assimilation, we play into the harsh societal fictions that have slowly morphed into truths for many people. Considering all of these unfortunate realities, it is important to evaluate people individually and continue to skepticize the accuracy of media representation. If one can continually question the ignorance of media and oversimplifying of people, they can transcend the misrepresentations that contribute to a society fraught with hatred and turmoil, pushing for the elimination of unfair and inaccurate biases.
