My Relationship With Media

I have a complicated relationship with media. On one hand, I try limit my media consumption throughout my everyday life. But at the same time, I realize that my efforts are largely futile due to the way that media can creep into every aspect of our lives today.
I use my phone many times during the day. I use it to connect with my friends mainly through Instagram and Snapchat. Even though my main purpose in using these apps is to communicate with friends, I am inevitably bombarded with advertisements. In the back of my mind, I know that ads on social media are carefully constructed to look candid so that we will be more likely to believe them. I know that despite their vibrant colors and pearly white smiles, these posts are not real. Despite what I know to be true, advertisements on social media still have a way of getting into my head. I guess that the aesthetic of certain advertisements appeals to my sense of perfectionism with their pristine and over edited photos. What makes it worse is that apps like Instagram make it seem as if you are the one in control of what you see. You decide who you will follow and what posts you will like. But in reality, the advertisers behind the screen are careful manipulators who will only show you what they think you want to see. Because of this, I try to limit my screen time, but I still occasionally find myself scrolling through Instagram or useless Snapchat articles even though I have already communicated with friends. I like social media in that it opens new doors for communication but I do not like the way that it creates yet another space where companies and brands can manipulate our views and make us seems as if we are still in control.
I rarely watch TV or read magazines. When I do, I am appalled by the frequency of advertisements in both of these forms of media. Every other page in most magazines is filled with some aesthetically pleasing photo full of impossibly beautiful people and vague, disjointed words. On TV, I can barely watch for ten minutes without being interrupted by an advertisement full of people whose entire life was fixed by some miracle product or medicine. It all gets incredibly tiresome to look at. So, I usually avoid magazines and TV.
I do get National Geographic at home. I like to read it because of the scientific articles. There are not as many advertisements in these magazines (compared to magazines like Vanity Fair or People), which is another reason why I choose to read them. I like that they are not filled with useless advice from celebrities that I do not care about or makeup ads that are photoshopped to the point of weirdly unreal looking faces. I also read the New York Times online when I get the chance because, even though it does have advertisements, they are much easier to ignore because of the content of the articles. Unlike many TV shows and magazines, I am drawn to these media forms because their content does not bore me so much that I stray towards the ads.
But, I realize that my efforts to minimize my useless media intake are often futile. I like to think that I can control the way I see the world but I know that my opinions have been shaped by the advertisements I see on Instagram, Snapchat, television, magazines, billboards, and all the other forms of media that are prominent my life and the lives of most of my peers.