Nonstop Information and Communication

In the ever advancing world of today people are bombarded with communication. Information comes in a constant stream through social media, advertisements, television, phones, pictures, music, and print.In this age of information people struggle with how to digest and form opinions on all of it. Some think that this is a bad thing, that it is creating a world of democratization. While this may be true, communication is an essential part of evolving as a global society and feeds the consumerism and mass culture of today. Communication is a way of sharing ideas and cultures and should not be looked down on. As the masses learn more and more about things they become increasingly diverse. Technological advances increase mass communication which becomes vital in portraying information on a global scale.
 Communication and information also can have down falls. Often times information is distorted by channel noise, semantic noise and psychological noise. Marshall McLuhan explains it by saying "Everyone has their own set of goggles". These so called goggles shape our view of the world, for example my view of the world is much different than my teachers or someone from a different country. The media also plays a major role in how the public perceive a situation, idea, person or product with agenda-setting. While this might help people process information how is the public supposed to form their own opinions when they are already looking through the medias goggles? The media has told society what to buy, who to believe and what to worry about which has created a mass culture. This mass culture has helped to bring global awareness to issues as well as create a society based on materials and leisure.