Are We What We Watch?

In the Context of Information and Documentaries

Documentaries have always served as a source of nonfictional educative entertainment. It could range from biographies of famous figures like Vincent Van Gogh or historical events like the numerous ones made on Word War II. However, the subject of a documentary can be based on contemporary topics and events as well. One may argue that an individual seeks out the genres most suited to their nature in real life. To say that you are what you watch, one may realize carries great weight with their choice of documentaries. Most modern documentaries or docu-series tend to range beyond the forty-minute time span and this can be arguably the most distinctive and clear attribute that steers the choice of those watching the particular documentary in question. In the postmodern one may rarely find time to sit down and watch a proper documentary so they would be very specific in their choice.

A budding artist for example would be interested in watching documentary films on the subject of art movements and famous classical artists. A writer perhaps writing a period piece based on a historical time period may watch a documentary on that historical event as part of their research. However, it may not be as obvious as an individual’s profession every time. Sometimes, there is a curiosity that lingers in one despite it not being a factor in their professional life. Perhaps it is simply a belief or perspective of life. An individual seeking answers about the universe may gravitate to documentaries on space and philosophers like Nietzsche or Schopenhauer. Their nature revolves around questioning the whys of their environment and this helps feed their curiosity. There is a sense of fulfillment.

To say that you are what you watch may ring true in most cases, so when one may want to gain an insight on what someone is like, one must look into what kind of documentaries they watch. Simply because that is what they are questioning in life subconsciously. They seek information on a specific subject of their choosing.

In conclusion, we can see how there is truth to the saying ‘You are what you watch’. The information a person seeks often displays their internal ideas and questions.

In the Context of Politics and News

We all have that one family member at our homes (umm…usually our uncles) who is the most enthusiastic participant of discussions in family gatherings, who knows what happened where, which businessman sold what car and at what price, who knows the current update of what’s been going on in Syria, what is America up to and so on and so forth. They are the ones who unabashedly project their opinions about politics, current affairs, matters regarding policy-making and diplomacy. They get so engrossed in the heart of the issue that they start quoting the T.V. shows and news channels they heard the news from. Now, based off of the argument that they present and the evidences that they come up with, everybody in the room has to succumb to their persuasion. We all are aware, that people of this sort binge on every single bullet-in news and talk show on an array of news channels, they fancy public figures such as Justin Trudeau and renowned journalists like Mehr Bokhari, Waseem Badaami and company. On top of it all, their ideology resonates heavily with a particular political agenda and hence you know what party they’re voting for in the elections coming up.

Avid viewers of news channels find any other mode of entertainment to be of excessively vapid and insipid nature. They voraciously consume the horrors of living in a border-line dystopian world by routinely checking the news, listening to the headlines on an hourly basis and are up-to-date with every single happening around the globe. They pass judgments on how good or trashy a politician was in his speech and how “his demeanour could have been a little more inviting while giving an interview to a journalist”. We cannot even blame them for possessing opinions of this design because it’s natural; you watch something on the television, you become involved in it and you imagine yourself being at liberty to comment about everything. That’s how the media industry works! If their input (the content that they put out) is or not received well by the audience and is, hence, not generating opinions about it, either positive or negative, their content would not make bucks. So, it is in their best of interests to give people the content that they want.

However, binging on negativity in the form of news can have a devastating effect on people’s physical and mental health. Watching too much news can actually lead a person to lose themselves to insanity. This was observed recently with the frequent intake of information via television regarding the mortality rate of corona patients. This knowledge of an extremely morbid nature, took a toll on people’s health and pushed them in to developing mental health illnesses such as depression and anxiety. Moreover, these were leading to soaring rates of suicide cases, not only in Pakistan but the entire world. Had these people stopped listening to aggressively debilitating and sorrowful news, their sanity and good health could have stayed intact.

This proves that you are what you watch and it is only in one’s best of interests that they are cognizant about the content that they are flooding their minds with and maintain a healthy balance between what they watch and why they are watching it in the first place.

Read an article on how Media has been Culturally Invasive here.