Control the media and control the people. At least that’s the message that has been echoed for much of modern history. We only have to glimpse at Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Russia, or Citizen Kane (based on the life of Patrick Hurst), to see real life examples of this at play. But surely that can’t occur in a free market democracy such as America, where the constitution protects freedom of speech, and we have the free will to choose our media sources, right? 

Suppose instead of media, we substitute “streaming services” in its place. We think, oh, so Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu etc. Yeah, I love those. Okay, so it “seems” like we have more choice than ever before. Yet, as one can see during this COVID-19 pandemic, the choice is largely an illusion. Ask around and you’ll soon realize that many people are watching the same shows. Tiger King swept the nation, followed by The Last Dance, followed by whatever else Netflix pushes on us. We think that we’re making free decisions because we move our cursor up and down on Netflix’s menu, and the recommended titles seem like personalized suggestions, but are they really so personalized? And personalized from what? A catalog of the same 500 shows and movies that they’re currently pushing? 

We likely have far less choice over our consumption of streaming services than we think. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, they largely decide what shows they want you to watch, place them high up in the default home page, recommend them through multiple categories i.e. new releases, now trending, popular hits, recommended for you etc. It’s all largely up to Hulu what it chooses to push, which show it’ll get the most money from promoting, which product placement within some show is paying the most and other various factors. 

What results is that these large streaming services, which are slowly merging to form a few mega companies that largely control the majority of all media, decide what the vast majority of Americans are watching. They know that next week they’re going to push a documentary on the rainforest. This documentary was produced by National Geographic, which receives funding from various organizations. They know that the documentary will produce an uptick or surge in donations to wildlife organizations that receive donations and disburse them to other NGOs and organizations like National Geographic. This is all anticipated ahead of time. They largely know what shows you’re going to watch, when you’re going to watch them, and how that show will influence your behavior. They all have connections and agendas, and they are easily pushing them on unsuspecting viewers, all while collecting more data about our personal habits so they can better understand, predict, and manipulate us in the future. 

Pull back the veil of ignorance and realize that the media controls what we watch, and that our perception of free-choice is largely an illusion. But don’t stop there. Take the next step, and realize that no matter how strong we feel our conscious will is, it pales in comparison to the impact that our subconscious plays in influencing our behavior. If I watch a series of scary movies during the day, telling everyone that none of them scared me, that confidence carries no weight once my brain goes to sleep and those same images now become the scenery for my nightmares. Have you ever woken up with an urge or craving for a specific food that seemingly came from nowhere? It’s no coincidence, but likely it’s your subconscious responding to some marketing that it observed the day prior, to which you were not consciously aware. 

Our environment mostly controls our subconscious, and our subconscious mostly drives our behaviors. Being mindful of every action is exhausting and beyond the reach of most people. So their subconscious takes over during these moments when one is daydreaming, or paying attention to something else, or talking on the phone, or listening to the radio. Our subconscious influences our daily actions to a huge degree, and it’s being hijacked by media companies. If you watch a certain news channel, and it’s screaming catastrophe every five minutes, your subconscious will start to sense that things are really bad, and maybe it’s time to trigger the fight or flight response. Your subconscious mind is influenced by everything in your environment, particularly when you are a passive observer of non-stop TV shows, movies, and other media content. 

Think of media like food for your brain. If you understand the adage, “you are what you eat,” then use this to see the parallels with the media and understand that “your mind is what it consumes.” If you consume nonstop media that is largely influenced by a few huge mega companies, then they will have an equally huge influence over your mind. They will largely dictate your beliefs, your thoughts, your dreams, and your desires. You are influenced by what you consume, just like you are influenced by what you eat. If we don’t stop and decide what is healthy for our minds, just like we do with our bodies, then we’re going to end up sick, and likely under the thought-control of these large companies. Don’t become a carbon-copy of the person next to you, who parrots the same opinions, has the same dreams, and organizes their life to mirror the information that they digest. Instead, carefully choose your media, like you do your food. Research your media sources, making sure to understand if there is product placement, if it has a hidden agenda, or if it’s fear-mongering. If we don’t respect and value the information that we let enter our minds, we will become sick, just like a person eating junk-food all the time. 

Media is controlling our minds, and the mega companies know it. Don’t be blindly led like a sheep, alongside the other sheep, mindlessly consuming whatever next video they recommend. Stop, think, decide, or stop altogether and decide to read, to search for content, to do or act, or write, or create. Continuous media consumption without careful consideration is tantamount to brainwashing. And we don’t need to help these companies wash our brains for us. Let’s keep our brains in our own hands, and decide what we feed it, and how we keep it healthy. It’s time to push back and stop letting media companies dictate what we watch. Take the time and research the next thing you put into your brain...It might just change your mind.