My Media Life – A Timeline

1988
Fredrik Dan Olof Ringholm is born in the city of Strängnäs, Sweden.

1989-1992
Watches The Land Before Time (Don Bluth, 1988) at least 3 times a day, every day.

1992
Younger brother is born.

1993
Parents buy him his first console, the Super Nintendo, to help him deal with no longer being at the centre of their attention.

1994
Enrols in pre-school. Fakes literacy by pretending to read aloud from books.

1995
Begins a life-long infatuation with the English language, through consuming daily shows on Cartoon Network.

1996
Younger sister is born.

2000
Baldur’s Gate: Shadows of Amn is released on PC.

2003
First time truly connecting with an album of music – Mörk Gryning’s Maelstrom Chaos.

2004
Finishes primary school. Pursues his love of the English language by attending the IB-diploma programme.

2005
Creates his first avatar in an online environment, a jaw-less undead, in World of Warcraft.

2007
Establishes screen-name Paraprax. Graduates with an IB-diploma.

2008
Number of people who know of him as Para or Paraprax equals or surpasses that of those who know him as Fredrik.

2010
Changes home server in World of Warcraft and joins the same guild as a young Dutch woman.

2011
Meets the analogue representation of the woman he’s spent hours upon hours
every day conversing with through the digital world.

2012
Updates Facebook relationship status.

2013
Last known login to World of Warcraft. Begins work at Mariefred public library.

2016
Realises how massive an amount of money and time he has invested in the digital world. Exemplified by 428 games and 329 DLC’s owned on the Steam platform alone.

2017
Moves to the Netherlands, to live with his life partner and begin his studies of
Media and Information.

So, why do I “heart” my media? Because media has, for the duration of my entire life, been entwined with who I am and what I do. Through it, I found interests, inspiration, escape, confidence, love and a calling. I constructed the above lifeline to be an example (not exhaustive by any means) of how at any given time along my lifeline media – in the form of media products, but also the devices and the activities and social commitments I’ve maintained through these devices – has played an integral part in the formation of my identity.

I heart my media simply because I love life – and I can’t (or won’t) imagine life without it.