Introduction
4/11/19
What is media? Is it the social media apps that I have on my phone, or could they be the billboards I see as I pass them on the highway? Through this year, I have come to discover that media is involved in every aspect of my life and has influenced every thought. I feel as if I have become progressively more addicted to my phone and media over the course of my middle to high school years. Now, I turn off my screen time statistics because I'm afraid of seeing the truth about my relationship with media.
In 6th grade, my parents gave me a phone and placed harsh regulations on my usage. As time passed, those restrictions decreased to this point where I am basically given full freedom over how much time I spend on my phone. Out of the last few years, the total amount of days where I have been without my phone are probably only in the range of 10-20. I have been without my phone or access to media during the week where it was taken by Mr. Starace and the few times I have been camping in areas without reception. Every other day my phone is constantly in hand checking my social media accounts, playing games, etc.
The social media I use most frequently consists of Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, and short advertisements I see that pop up when I play those free, playable-without-internet games when I'm bored in chem. I often find myself relying on social media to communicate with others instead of real life interaction. Instead of talking to people I want to make friends with, I typically snapchat them first to avoid the initial awkwardness of meeting someone. Honestly, I don't even understand the point of instagrams ice you do not directly communicate with anyone, but I still use it mostly because most of my peers use it. This goes to show how media and socialization have become intertwined - they both effect how the other functions. Although I spend a significant amount of time on these apps, I waste the most time on Youtube. I began watching random viral videos , but I it has now become an endless stream of videos that can take up hours per day. While writing this blog, I have probably been distracted for about an hour instead of writing this.
Media is the source of all political knowledge that I currently have. Previous to this year, I watched CNN, MSNBC, and all of those mostly liberal news establishments because I thought channels, such as Fox, were biased (because they are, but I was assuming the ones I watched weren't). Now, I am starting to become aware of the biases that exist in all of mainstream media. When beginning to watch segments about upcoming candidates for the democratic primary, I began to ask myself: Why does CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, etc., all give certain candidates such as Kamala Harris, Beto O'Rourke, and other mainstream candidates so much more positive attention than others? As I begun to dug into these candidates, I have found how their past voting records contradict a lot of what they are campaigning for, yet people like Bernie Sanders, who has been fighting for the right progressive issues all of his life, are slandered and given hit-job after hit-job to try to bring him down?
I think media has had a negative effect on my life. it has hindered my ability to communicate and socialize with others in real life. Even when I am conversing with people, I have random impulses to just check the time on my phone for no reason. The thing is that I am aware of all of the things media does to me, but for some reason I am unable to stop.
What is media? Is it the social media apps that I have on my phone, or could they be the billboards I see as I pass them on the highway? Through this year, I have come to discover that media is involved in every aspect of my life and has influenced every thought. I feel as if I have become progressively more addicted to my phone and media over the course of my middle to high school years. Now, I turn off my screen time statistics because I'm afraid of seeing the truth about my relationship with media.
In 6th grade, my parents gave me a phone and placed harsh regulations on my usage. As time passed, those restrictions decreased to this point where I am basically given full freedom over how much time I spend on my phone. Out of the last few years, the total amount of days where I have been without my phone are probably only in the range of 10-20. I have been without my phone or access to media during the week where it was taken by Mr. Starace and the few times I have been camping in areas without reception. Every other day my phone is constantly in hand checking my social media accounts, playing games, etc.
The social media I use most frequently consists of Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, and short advertisements I see that pop up when I play those free, playable-without-internet games when I'm bored in chem. I often find myself relying on social media to communicate with others instead of real life interaction. Instead of talking to people I want to make friends with, I typically snapchat them first to avoid the initial awkwardness of meeting someone. Honestly, I don't even understand the point of instagrams ice you do not directly communicate with anyone, but I still use it mostly because most of my peers use it. This goes to show how media and socialization have become intertwined - they both effect how the other functions. Although I spend a significant amount of time on these apps, I waste the most time on Youtube. I began watching random viral videos , but I it has now become an endless stream of videos that can take up hours per day. While writing this blog, I have probably been distracted for about an hour instead of writing this.
Media is the source of all political knowledge that I currently have. Previous to this year, I watched CNN, MSNBC, and all of those mostly liberal news establishments because I thought channels, such as Fox, were biased (because they are, but I was assuming the ones I watched weren't). Now, I am starting to become aware of the biases that exist in all of mainstream media. When beginning to watch segments about upcoming candidates for the democratic primary, I began to ask myself: Why does CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, etc., all give certain candidates such as Kamala Harris, Beto O'Rourke, and other mainstream candidates so much more positive attention than others? As I begun to dug into these candidates, I have found how their past voting records contradict a lot of what they are campaigning for, yet people like Bernie Sanders, who has been fighting for the right progressive issues all of his life, are slandered and given hit-job after hit-job to try to bring him down?
I think media has had a negative effect on my life. it has hindered my ability to communicate and socialize with others in real life. Even when I am conversing with people, I have random impulses to just check the time on my phone for no reason. The thing is that I am aware of all of the things media does to me, but for some reason I am unable to stop.
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