The Impact of Western Media

Haven't we discussed this kind of topic before? Regardless, western or American media has proliferated in the past decade right here in the Middle East. All the latest shows and movies are watched, discussed, and pretty much the most addictive things next to coffee and cigarettes.

Go back 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Look at your parents and grandparents. A lot of things that we deem acceptable or "the norm" right now was not the case back then. The very lifestyles we lead are extremely different. Where we study, how we spend out weekends, what we wear, and what we watch and listen to are completely different. Is this a result of the type of media content we are exposed to? Most probably yes. Co-educational systems, relationships, and even male-female friendships did not exist back then. I'm not saying that introducing these things is a bad thing; it all comes down to cultural, religious, and moral perspectives. Globalization has played it's part, and now instead of being constricted to the good and bad of our own cultures, we have so many different perspectives and ideas to choose how we want to live. However, the more we sink deeper into American/western pop culture, the more we let go of the cultural identities that we should be holding on to to some extent.

As I said before, there are always advantages to being exposed other culture, but the trick is to take the good and leave the bad. But then again, we have to define what is good and what is bad, which is even trickier. There's no question that when you're living in a sort of closed environment, the outside open world is mesmerizing is so many ways, however, we should be smart and critical enough to believe that what we see on television is not a reflection of reality. It is far from.