Learning Journal #6

I have realized that a lot of my recent journal entries have involved movies or TV, but I think that is because media has become one of my favorite ways to think about the concepts we discuss in class. I like seeing how human nature gets reflected through entertainment because I think watching people actually experience something can make an idea feel much more real than just discussing it in theory. Recently, because of my roommate, I have been watching Survivor and The Traitors, and our discussion today about self versus others made me realize how much both shows revolve around that exact conflict.

Both shows constantly force people to decide who is “us” and who is “them.” People form alliances, decide who they trust, and eventually become convinced that certain people are threats. What is interesting is how quickly those categories can become more important than the actual person. That made me think about the Emily Dickinson poem we read today, especially “Assent, and you are sane; / Demur, you’re straightway dangerous.” In both shows, once the majority agrees on something, that belief almost becomes reality. On The Traitors, someone can have very little evidence against them, but once enough people become suspicious, even defending them can make you suspicious too.

Obviously, reality TV creates extreme circumstances on purpose, so I do not think it perfectly represents how people behave normally. But I think that exaggeration is also what makes it so interesting. It takes tendencies we already have, like wanting to belong, distrusting outsiders, and following the majority, and makes them impossible to ignore. Maybe that is why I keep coming back to media in these journals. It gives us an exaggerated version of ourselves, but sometimes that makes it easier to recognize things about human nature that are harder to notice in everyday life.

Comments

  1. williams.dan76October 13, 2026 at 8:08 AM

    This is a thoughtful and interesting response. Yes, I think you're right. A lot of media and TV, and films revolve around plots of us against them. This is the process of othering, using "other" to define the group--we are not them.

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