IMPACT OF MEDIA ON HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Introduction:

Media is today the most popular and cheapest form of mass communication. The influence of media on the people has changed the way of life. Media includes, Television is the most popular mode of media and includes various other modes like cell phones, internet, news paper etc. Media has a strong influence on the moral and social value system of an individual and society.

The mass media has a tremendous effect on human behavior, some of which is not good. The media is massive and powerful. It is everywhere and both young and old are subjected to what is being said, done, and talked about. People are able to make their own decisions and come to their own conclusions not solely based on what they have seen and heard on TV, in news paper, magazine, and on internet. However, that is not always the case. The media is very influential, persuasive, and powerful and can easily sway opinions and behaviors.

Impact of various media on human behavior:

Television

Man today is very much dependent on media in every walk of his life. The most life influential media today especially for the children, youth, housewives is the television. Television has become a very essential part of our routine life style.

Advantages of Television:

. The ability to bring news as it happens

. The fact we are using more than one scene when viewing

. The large number of information and documentaries available for viewing.

Disadvantages:

. The amount of time spent watching television is often considered as a waste of time.

. The fact that families may be in the same room for watching tv but they may not even acknowledge each other.

. The illustrated in this that young children and youths are often being exposed to sex scenes and scenes of violence.

Television was discovered to make our leisure time happy but today we are creating excess leisure time for the sake of television. Must say, life is boring without entertainment but we should have limit on our watching. In some houses, Television has taken the place of God. People do not have time to talk to God and remember him, but people make it a point to make time for watching their programs. The programs today in Television have become a market depicting women in bad role always. Women are shown as sex objects, which puts bad influence on the children and the youths. The violence and the new ideas of stealing and murders shown through serials, films etc. though show us the reality what’s happening,  but also depict or encourage people to use these ideas again somewhere else. The Saas-Bahu serials always give an idea to daughter in laws, that their mothers in laws are always indifferent. These all have greatly affected the people of this generation specially the youths.

Internet 

Secondly, the internet, it is the very easiest way to collecting information, reaching to people of the world wide happening. The term internet refers to the global network of public computers running internet protocol. It is one of the most powerful tools throughout the world

Advantages of internet:

. The biggest benefit affected by the internet is information. We can find any type of information on any subject.

. The primary goal of the internet is communication. It has done extremely well in this field. However the development process is still going on to make it more dependable and quick. Eg: email, facebook, online chatting etc…

. Internet is a popular medium of entertainment. Eg: movies, news etc…

. Varieties of services are offered via internet. Eg: job search, internet banking etc…

 Disadvantages:

. Virus threats are a program that interrupts the usual operation of our personal computer.

. Pornography is defiantly harmful for children as well as youths. These influence on the mental health of the children.

. Threat of personal details while using the internet. Eg : address, credit card numbers, terror treats etc…

Internet on the other hand, has addicted people to it, specially the youths, through its social networking sites etc. By which to days children do not have time to sit and talk to their parents and neighbors but have plenty of time to chat with unknown people far away in different states and countries. The porn sites available in the net also divert the youth and this way internet too is a boon as well as bane.

Cell Phones

Cell phones are a trend today. The costlier the cell phone the more prestige you have. Cell phones are having a great influence in our life and are very convenient to keep with us. Cell phones are faster and more effective way to transfer information.  Every human being on earth has a cell phone today, though he doesn’t have a proper house to stay.

Advantages:

. It helps to develop the communicative skills.

. Nothing is more than a cell phone comes to great help in emergency.

. Parents can be a little less worried about their kids by being in constant touch with them.

Disadvantages:

. Some people get so much addicted to cell phones for talking, video, messaging, games etc.

. Health of those living in the vicinity of cell phone tower is becoming a growing concern.

. The continues exposure of signal to and from our cell phone can be concern, although to a merge amount, the mobile industry has long resisted.

It is very nice to know that cell phones seriously are a very helpful mean of communication. In the same way it has created many problems on the society today. Many scandals happen through mobile phones, the indecent SMS and the MMS etc. have shown the other side of the cell phones and it has affected the society.

Press:

Then we have the press, the newspaper. We get to know the world wide activities and news. Whether true are false, we have to analyze it. After the recent birthday party attack in Mangalore, people now do not have a good impression on the media that is newspaper and Television. Some news in the newspaper may be misleading and flattering.

The press plays an important role in the society. It has given the rights to  do many things in order to get information that they need.

The press do cross the lines between what’s private and what is not. They are important part of our everybody’s lives. Without the press we couldn’t be able to know about a lot of things which are happening now and have happened in the world. They are the one that bring us vital information that we need to know about each day in our lives.

The press could have a very negative effect on a person’s career but then again they also have a positive effect on it. They make the person who was never known to anyone as known to everyone in just a second. The press could put him down him in history as being someone great.

In general when we look at media and its impact, we really feel that media has done a good job on us. The trends we follow, the fashion we do is the impact of the media. Media has also opened our eyes towards the social evils prevailing in our society and has also raised voice against this eradication. Media also gives information on the various aspects prevailing in the country, society etc.

Media has affected the human being in other ways too, may be through the depiction nude scenes, violence, depiction of women as commodities etc. Sometime misleading news or advertisements are shown, which induce people to buy things of inferior quality and this put them to a big loss.

The true fact is that it is hard to live without these modes of communication. We always have to use it positively and not negatively. Alfred Noble, the person who created nuclear bomb said that he was the most unfortunate and punishable scientist on earth, for his creation killed lakhs of people of one generation and injured lakhs of people of the west generation.

All inventions are made with a good hope and the creator is not being the destroyer here, but the users of the creation are themselves the destroyers and hence these creation say internet Television, cell phone,  press etc. be the light of our life. ‘God is the giver and taker’ and it is up to man to make the best use of media.

Conclusion:

The media plays the vital role in the human behavior. It has positive and negative effects on human beings thinking, behavior, attitudes etc. Media is the fastest means of communication in the contemporary world, which gives the direct picture of the world. It helps to know the reality of the world, what is good and what is bad. It influence to form the behavior based on individual opinion according to their mental view.  The misleading of media will may make people to follow cruelty or violence. The positives of the media makes man perfect and negatives make man rude. So media have an important role in today’s   world to lead human being in right path and it should have great influence on human behavior. If we use these medias in right way then these will become boon for us and if we not use these medias in right manner then it definitely become the bane for us and it will misleads the human beings as well as this society. So finally we can say that media is a part of our life and we could change our behavior from negative to positive.

 

References:

    1.  http://www.ehow.com

     2.  http://www.searchengineland.com