Media and Social Structure

The media has always in a way controlled our social structure, but I'd probably say it's more up to the family or the ones who raise us in the way we act in public.

I have always been outspoken and I give that credit to my mother and my siblings. My brother was born unable to speak until age 6, and my sister was diagnosed with echolalia, a disorder in which she could only repeat what was said to her. Since my brother spoke in screams, she would repeat. Who did I have to learn from? The best, clearly. I was pushed ahead a grade and told I was extremely intelligent, yet I constantly spoke out of turn and had "social butterfly" written on every report card into high school. My mom didn't rear me as a child and tell me not to stop talking. She told me to get average grades and to speak my mind, and that's what I did. The media and my surroundings showed me friends who got paid for each A they received. I didn't really follow that. My way of living when it came to how I acted was kind of shaped by what I was interested in at the time, which I can definitely blame on the media. My crazy black and pink hairstyle, my weird plaid pants and my latter following stage of long skirts and not wearing shoes have eventually mellowed, but in high school I was pegged by others (who learned from the media) that I was rebelling.

Now, as a college-educated adult in society, I believe society and media really begin to come to play. I am shaped by what I see in the norms. I show up to interviews and presentations in a pantsuit. I keep consistent eye contact per the cultural norms of my society.

I guess it comes down to aging when I think about the social structure. I could not have cared less about what anyone thought of me in high school, but I am aware of how I am presenting myself now at an adult age.