Is there a difference between real life or imaginary? Do us as people know the difference between what the media says and what the truth is? In the story How to React to Familiar Faces (Eco 174) , Umberto gives us an idea of what society is turning into due to mass media. Mass media plays such a big part in the United State from the tabloids to the television, people begin to fall under all the miss guided information. Umberto Eco talks about how he knew this man, he looked so familiar and he could put a face to a name, when really he realized it wasn’t someone he knew personally but someone he knew of.

Thanks to the media, Eco decided to give us the information which we seem to look beyond, since we are so use to the exposure. After you read his essay you begin to think different about what types of information is getting put into the world. When you pick up a magazine or get on the computer you are exposing yourself to becoming part of the media. So do you really know the difference between real or imaginary? I have received confidence from people who, appearing fairly frequently on TV, have been subjected to the mass media over a certain period of time. Eco 175) If you believe everything you read then mass media already has you by the throat, but for those who aren’t believers, they are oblivious to everything around them. Media can have benefits also, from giving us info about our troops to daily news about what’s going on in the world. You can decide on whether not media is really what it’s made out to be or if it actually is helping society with becoming more aware.

You can be a student of mass communication, debate the effects or reality, or the confusion between the real and the imagined, and expound the way some people fall permanently into this confusion; but still you are not immune to the syndrome. (Eco 175) As you can see Umberto’s essay truly made us open up our eyes and see what mass media really is. Whether it is good or bad media, it’s going to be in our life now to death. We have to look at things outside of the box and become our own being and not rely on media for information.