Overvaluing the "media world" can profoundly diminish those of us whose frame of reference is the real world.

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One of the most significant effects of media self-referentiality is the removal of subjects that are not widely recognized by the media from our general sense of what is important or worth talking about.

When we live in a world where it seems painfully obvious that whatever portion of life we may personally experience is nowhere near as important as what we see depicted in the media, it can be very difficult to recognize that we have observations and experiences that are worth sharing with others—or that others like ourselves may have observations and experiences worth sharing with us.  The predominant message with which we are imbued is that if something isn't a Name Brand Issue, it just isn't particularly worth bothering about.

This view not only separates us from the "larger world" depicted in our media, but also blocks us from doing anything more than idly speculating about its nature. 

In the end, we feel as distant from what we consider the truly significant dimension of life as medieval peasants did from their visions of angels in the clouds.

(c) COPYRIGHT 1998 ROBERT WINTER.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.