Developing as an individual is one of the biggest things a person does as he or she goes through life. Arguably, this is perhaps the most important aspect of life as it dictates who we are and why we make the decisions we do. However, due to the fast-paced and hectic state of the modern world, many people tend to get swept away or flounder under the current, and they find themselves feeling a sense of powerlessness in their own development. It would seem predefined tracks have begun to appear, as if we are no longer making our own path but rather following a rail track. Now and then we reach a point where we can branch and switch tracks, but at the end of the day we are still just riding toward a set destination with no real control. This seems to be a growing problem as media continues to become such a dominant part of day-to-day life, making it much easier to disconnect from reality and detach yourself emotionally from the world. Society seems to be losing more and more genuine thought through this process at an alarming rate.

The things that encompass our lives — Internet, films, games, etc. — can be both a tool and a weapon. These are things that can teach or provoke thought; they can pique our interest, inspire us or even evoke a wide range of emotions on topics we may have never known about. At the same time, these things can desensitize us and influence us to think only within a limited scope. To the uninformed, they can provide false or misleading information. Media is a double-edged sword that comes with a risk in every one of its forms. One of the things most often confused in our interpretation of media is the idea the ultimate responsibility of the created product lies in the hands of the creator; however, it is just the opposite in the fact the viewer is wholly in control of what he or she takes away from it. A creator may have intended a certain message in his original piece, but an observer can derive a wildly different point of view. Unfortunately, this has become a narrower and narrower margin over the years, as emphasis was put more on the desired message by the creator and less on the ability of the viewer to interpret something.

An alarming dichotomy between what we see as art and science may be emerging due to these influences. While each has a distinct difference, it is hard to say neither affects the other. Impressionism and Futurism, among other movements, are living proof the art world is not isolated from science. The amount of influence the genre of science fiction has had on real science is no coincidence either. These two fields, different in their own rights, are not necessarily separate and function very similarly to a balance scale: one side cannot add or subtract something that will not move the other side. However, many treat these things with distinction and tend to avoid one and overload the other, and I argue that is not a healthy practice. College provides an excellent representation of this. While many schools attempt to reinforce the idea of a balanced education, all too often a student becomes polarized in his or her studies and inevitably neglects a side of the scale, becoming unbalanced. 

Now, this development is understandable. As students become more engrossed in their major of choice, they begin to take more specialized courses and become overloaded with the amount of new information they are expected to know. It becomes quite a lot to handle, and it will be discouraging at times, but it is important to continue to stretch one’s self by maintaining a balance in both art and science. This is where the problem with modern media begins to arise. In small doses, it does well to keep that scale level, but it can lead to an overwhelming sense of complacency and false satisfaction if used too often. At times, it is like following a picture book or paint-by-number, rather than digesting a piece of prose or being moved by an intricate painting. We seem to be moving in a direction that fears ambiguity and involves us losing the ability to come to a unique conclusion based on solely our thoughts and experiences. Otherwise, the train track will only get even more uniform as the message of becoming a well-balanced person will continue to be blurred more and more amidst a world of streamlined thought and induced apathy.