The Importance of Critically Examining Communication Processes

Living in the age of shrinking distances, a good understanding of communications is essential for survival. Communications permeate almost every inch of Western life. Take advertisements for example. You can barely drive down a dirt road highway without learning that there’s a McDonald’s, next left. In the city, advertisements have become part of the everyday scenery.

Not only have they become normalized in our everyday experience, they in turn have a normalizing effect on society. They convince us what is appropriate and what to strive for, whether we are conscious of this or not. We live in a land of free choice, but very few stray from the narrow swath of what’s acceptable. Those who do are outcasted, or pushed to the margins.

Cleanliness does not mean sterile. Beauty does not mean plastic perfection. Manhood cannot be encapsulated by a fast car. However, these are all popular ideas promulgated through advertisements.

Awareness of the effect of advertisements on society is just one example of why it is important to be critical of communication processes. In searching for meaning in this life, its easy to get herded like cattle into a place of comfort. Its easy to be a consumer and buy into the happiness of material goods and social acceptance. If you start to really think about the meaning in the lifestyle of the average North American consumer, life becomes meaningless... unless you believe in organized religion.