ABSTRACT
This chapter challenges readers to consider how they use media to engage with their own identity, with others and with society as a whole. It explores the ways that readers leverage their identities and the identities of others to meet goals, and how their self-esteem and sense of self is influenced by media messages. The chapter helps readers to identify the embedded values and points of view in various media messages. It explains how social cognition theory translates into real-life attitudes and behaviors. The chapter also helps readers to understand how social media relies on social capital and promotes parasocial relationships. It considers the utility of media literacy in making media choices. Media messages serve to socialize us to ways of being and thinking. Media easily allows for social modeling, Bandura noted, as characters showcase different personality traits, social roles and ways of being. Media consumers watch and learn from those models.
