The influences in our lives can be enormously significant in creating the world we live in. Things like the media, our parents, and our government have a massive impact on the way we live our lives, often more so than we realize.
In terms of the media, television channels and web sites can really skew the image of any recent happenings in the news to their advantage. For example, politically-based channels like CNN and Fox News may twist the image of a certain political candidate or current office holder in a way that reflects the beliefs of their channel. Viewers can take these twists as the truth, and form opinions on them/vote accordingly.
With our parents, they have a huge impact on the values we have throughout our lives. They essentially set the base for these values, and although people may adjust them, this base that our parents set may stay with them. For instance, just about all my friends have the same religious and political views as their parents. Many of them really have no idea why they have these views but have simply had them their entire life and continue to do so.
With our government, the values that they set for our country are what a lot of citizens value and follow as well. For example, our country values liberty and the importance of hard work, as do many of its citizens. But the government of a country like North Korea values something negative like hatred of America, and after watching videos and reading about the country, many of its citizens hate us as well. They don't seem to have too concrete of reasoning for it; they just feel that America is evil.
