Reading Blog #1

This reading is very insightful and I have to agree with the message. In the changing age of technology there are many images shown to us every day and it is necessary to be able to understand and comprehend them. A lack of visual literacy can be detrimental because of the number of images on the internet that are made to mislead or influence. Understanding the choices that go into creating an image and the message people are trying to convey can be the difference between believing wholeheartedly and being critical of some messages. Political and Informative messages are notorious for using images to persuade and support their arguments. I think that being aware of the number of images seen throughout the day is a good start like the reading states, but being able to critically analyze images is very beneficial. I learned about visual literacy in my freshman writing class where we were taught to critically analyze images and draw conclusions about what the poster/artist is trying to convey down to the colors used. Learning about colors and how they influence human emotion and feeling is very interesting because it is based on evolutionary traits. In my opinion it can be somewhat predatory as a marketer to use our evolutionary brain against us to try to persuade us. But learning that this exists can help avoid common marketing strategies. Symbolism is also used largely to convey a message without directly saying it and learning about symbolism can help to increase visual literacy aswell. For example, a symbol of patriotism in Uncle Sam is used to persuade people to register for the draft.