Why Fear Works So Well
At some point in our lives, we convince ourselves that we have the power to make reasonable decisions on whether or not we believe the messages in our media or whether or not an advertised product actually adds any meaningful value to our lives. We may sort of haphazardly go through the endless information found on the internet not worried about the messages we are receiving. These messages add filters to how we perceive reality, whether we realize it or not. The truth is that we are often far less capable of determining how we are being affected by media than most of us would like to admit. A lot of the information we receive through media is stored subconsciously. We are only aware of a small percentage of what we are receiving through any given media. To make matters worse, if we already have a highly active internal dialogue we miss even more of the meaning of the messages we’re receiving.
When we’re watching a commercial (or consuming any media really), we’re not merely grasping the verbiage within it; We are also receiving a underlying meaning along with that commercial, and that meaning does not usually have our best interest in mind. Of all the media that doesn’t have our best interest in mind, the root meaning of the messages in it is fear based. Specifically, the commercial’s intended purpose is to lower your ability to be aware by triggering an instinctual survival response, and then convincing you that you need to buy the advertised product to survive. A lot of the news today works in a very similar manner, but it’s in the form of selling you ideas which limit your ability to see the big picture. To really understand that we aren’t capable of simply shrugging these messages off is really useful because we can start to become more careful about the type of media we are allowing in.
What Can We Do About It?
An important step in counteracting negative media is to begin paying more attention to how a piece of media makes you feel. Does it lift you up and inspire you? Or does it make you worry or put you in a state of fear? This takes practice at first, but asking yourself how something makes you feel is a really good habit to get into in life in general. If something puts you in a state of fear you should trust that emotion and know that the situation doesn’t have your best interest in mind. If we are constantly subjected to fearful information and experiences we will inevitably have more fearful thought patterns arise and be limited in our ability to live in a balanced way.
With the onslaught of negative media being produced these days, it’s really easy to feel powerless. A simple way to keep ourselves positive is to counterbalance the negative media with positive media. For instance, we can make a playlist of uplifting music to listen to and make a list of movies with positive messages to watch. This creates more equilibrium in our thoughts and emotions, so we are not simply being inundated with negativity. Understanding our own weaknesses is a key to self-growth and success in whatever form. If we do not want to constantly relive negative emotions or become mindless consumers of products and media that don’t serve us in meaningful ways, then we have to be more mindful of our surroundings and the messages we are allowing in.
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