How The Needle Has Influenced My Thoughts & Actions

My addiction to mass media began slowly, and over time I found myself trying to consume every drop of information from the time I woke up until the minute I fell asleep. I cannot pinpoint the exact day when my intense interest in the media began, it could have been the 9/11 tragedy or maybe one of the Presidential elections. Modern technology has aided me in my habit with the ability to browse the internet and watch missed newscasts wherever I may be. The Hypodermic Needle Theory suggests that “media messages are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience”. I believe that I have been vulnerable for the last decade and a greater power has seduced me into the spiraling belief that everything I hear is factual. I recently came to this realization of how mass media has influenced my thoughts and actions, and I decided to cleanse my mind of this manipulation by tuning out and digging into fact-based evidence whenever possible. Considering our world is going through a pandemic and almost every conversation leads to the talk of the vaccine and other mandates, my process of change has been more difficult. I now want to have facts to back up my statements; whereas, before I would believe whatever I read because I trusted the sources. I no longer engage in mass media hysteria when someone shares an article with me and I try to always look for outside facts to back up whatever the article or YouTube video is saying.

I now wonder what the world would be like if the media did not exist, and society relied on word of mouth or life experiences to form their own opinions. Would it be any different or would it be the same? Unfortunately, I will never know the answer to that question, and only time will tell if my withdrawal from daily injections of mass media will slowly change my mindset. There have been many theories that have tried to discredit The Bullet/Hypodermic Needle Theory, and most scholars believe that this theory is inaccurate because it was not based on empirical research. From my personal experience and from watching those around me who believe what they hear on major TV networks or internet blogs to be true, I do not discredit this theory 100%.

History has shown that humans can easily be led to the slaughter like farm animals. People tend to do as they are told because they have either been manipulated through propaganda or the tactic of fear has been instilled. One of the first known uses of propaganda came from the Mesolithic era, where cave drawings have been found to depict warfare and victories and to suggest power over certain people. The Latin word “Propaganda” means to “spread” or “propagate”. The very first form of Mass Media that was used to leverage the devout Christian followers was through biblical text (Matthew 28:19). The Vatican claimed that “God wills it” and the followers fell into place like dominos and assisted in the slaughter of Muslims during the Crusades. I believe that learning from past events and applying that knowledge into today’s narrative will be the only way to disprove the Hypodermic Needle Theory and create a society where mass media no longer has the power to manipulate the mind.