My eyes have been stripped of their innocence.

What a revealing semester this has been. My baby virgin eyes have been revealed to the world of spotting fallacies and seeing beneath the skin of advertising. I don't think I'll ever be able to watch television, go grocery shopping, attend a music festival, etc with the same innocent, uncritical eyes that I inadvertently had. I imagine that I'll share a smirk with a fellow critical-thinking alumni whenever we happen to pass by a faulty or obvious marketing strategy ad that deserves disparaging or praise. Hypothetically, this class has built me the holographic computer that Iron Man uses while doing some mad thinking, but specially designed to spot and identify market strategies while walking through ad populated world.

 Now I think that is some pretty cool stuff. I'm appreciative that I've been opened up to this world of understanding; it makes me a more well-rounded, smarter person. Unfortunately and inevitably, much of this semester's learning will fall into the deep abyss called the forgotten. But knowing the names of every fallacy and rationalization isn't necessarily imperative. So long the gest of being aware and tentative to the media world around us upheld, the semester counts as a payoff. I don't see this being a problem in my future.
Furthermore, the constant, and rather weary, practice of media blogs has demonstrated a new meaning of media to me. As this is the conclusion blog, I needed to revisit my introduction blog. In it, I limited media to social media, newspapers, commercials, advertisements. In it, I failed to recognize the essential image of a brand as media. Who knew a Kid Cuisine box could count as media with an intent to persuade. However, my overall understanding of media's intent was pretty solid, and has been reinforced through these assignments.
I mentioned early that media and I are acquaintances. We still remain acquaintances, except I'm just a little more aware of the bs that it throws me. Nonetheless, I'll continue to supply McDonald's money so long they keep the coupons flowing.