Leisure Time Seizure Time Cognition and Comprehension

The mass.

The body’s mass.

The masses mass.

“Do mass media have the effect of drugging their audiences?” The question was asked long ago. Modern times and current state of affairs either contribute or deter from the bigger picture. It could or could it be we simply are feeling the effects more and more today. The minute effects. The louder ones too.

Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert Merton at one time opined that mass media reinforces what we already believe, enforces normal attitudes and behavior patterns of society.. Publicity closes the gap between private attitudes and public morality.

uh-oh.

As if we do not have enough problems already.

Mass audiences may suffer from information overload to the point they are actually narcotized by communication. The result may be reacting with apathy rather than action.

Lazarsfeld and Merton studied the phenomenon of social-relationship perspectives suggesting that informal relationships significantly affect audiences. The impact of a given mass communication is altered tremendously by persons who have strong social relationships with the audience member.

Each member of an audience member reacts individually. An individual reaction may be similar to other audience members with shared experiences.

Shared experiences. Good and bad.

Five basic characteristics exist of mass audiences:

-Comprised of individuals who are apt to have commonly shared experiences.

-The audience tends to be large.

-The audience tends to be heterogeneous rather than homogeneous. Individuals within a wide audience represent a wide variety of social categories.

-The audience tends to be relatively anonymous.

-The audience tends to be physically separated from the communicator.

Audiences are separated from the conglomerate communicator in both time and space. (H.U.B)

Good luck having a spiritual or otherwise experience with all that going on. Have you learned appropriate responses based on success of your previous responses? The pervasiveness of mass media opens up wider audiences, including children, and makes parental control more difficult because of that availability and the general permissiveness of society as a whole.

uh-oh.

Could it be that it is TOO simple. To use. To manipulate. To point and shoot……

There is considerable documentation to support the notion that the fewer skills required to use a given medium, the more likely it will be for large numbers of people to take advantage of it.

Yep. Coulda seen that coming. But may not have prepared properly.

If any medium demonstrates real value to the individual, however, that individual will acquire the skills necessary to use it.

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Lots depends on source credibility. Source availability. That. And presentation.

The presentation of the message is key. The numbers of exposures—the repetition—is also key. In addition, the effect of a given mass communicated message sent over a given channel will depend upon a large number of psychological characteristics and social category similarities among the members of the audience. (H.U.B.)

Cognition, another word for the process of thinking, and comprehension have a direct effect on the emotional reactions of the audiences. How and who they identify with. How and who they stick with. Rock out to. jig too, Macarena to. Hustle with. It can be a dance. Best that it is not an exhaustive dance.

Reinforce the good. Negate the bad. Seems simple enough. Getting by on the skin of your teeth may cause an unnecessary ache and pain. Problems, aches and pains may arise when the information givers, the media bestow prestige and enhance the authority of individuals and groups by legitimizing their status.

Not to say inclusion isn’t the name of the game. But at what cost?

Charles Lindbergh received so much publicity for his transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis that he became an instant and permanent international hero. The same luxury, the same exposure depending upon how one looks at things, was afforded to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Small time bank robbers and killers in the 1930’s who also gained prestige and status.

In the allocation department of time, free time and other time, the allocation of discretionary or leisure time—the media is a dominant force.

A dominant force. The audience the obedient follower?……..

Cognitive-attitudinal-behavioral linkage includes such mass media areas as medias effect on children, voting behavior, hobbies, family life, age, intelligence, violence, erotica, emotional, the list goes on and on.

Engagment is the name of the game. Excitement too. But when is enough too much or when is too much not enough? Before or after the seize.

Too much of anything is never a good thing. Getting by by the skin of one’s teeth is never a good thing. A close call. Bones and all. Too much latitude can provide wide open down time of epic-ness, emptiness and perpetual boredom.

The challenge is absorption. Of the information. When heard correctly. A synchronization of neuronal activity that is harmonious with the environment. Outward movements may exhibit as shaking movements involving much of the body (although truth be told, some folks may actually willingly exhibit real life questionable dance steps, we are all not Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly.)

Twisting by the pool.Ringing in the ears. Flashes of light. Light headed and light hearted all may be a spiritual sign of falling for the rock star. Or falling on one’s face. All may result in an experience of out of body experience proportions. It can be both spiritual and havoc producing at the same time. The time to pray comes and go and may be too late.

Sometimes the bright lights are too, too busy, too too flashy. The rock stars too shoot-ey starry. How the sound bounces off the wall may be the difference between falling in love and falling off stage. The suffocating seize of the frozen stare into space.

Strictly scientifically speaking there is probably and possibly nothing magical or mystical about the blurred lines. Important to note that the blurred lines may be a problem bigger than the price of the ticket paid to see the rocker at the rock concert or the stud muffin and beautiful chick at the night club.

Venture to guess that falling in love and experiencing a light headed moment of wonder are two separate medical conditions. Both of which in the end may need professional help of one kind or another.

Take notes.