You’re probably wondering what on earth a picture of a girl with a plant has to do with Why I Heart My Media. To be entirely honest, I was just scrolling through the old media of the chat between me and my little sister and this picture made me laugh a little harder than it probably should have because of its relevance to this assignment. To give you a little bit of a backstory; I set out to buy a goldfish one day because I was very lonely in my flat in Germany and my little sister (who I always FaceTime when I’m feeling lonely) was at school back in Mallorca, where I grew up and she still lives with our parents. Because Germany has very strict rues and regulations regarding the safekeeping of fish, I wasn’t allowed to buy one (who knew a filterless bowl on my dining table wasn’t a good enough home for a fish). So, instead, I decided to buy a plant (who was probably as entertaining as a goldfish would have been). By the time my new plant and I were on our way home, my sister had her lunch break and, although we couldn’t FaceTime, I was able to share this momentous experience with her thanks (once again) to our media devices. Only last week she found a cockroach in the house and FaceTimed me asking me (who was miles away in Amsterdam) what to do. It reminded me of that time I boarded the wrong train and called my mom in tears in need of help although, again, she was miles away in Mallorca. My point is that media isn’t just a communicative device – it’s much more than that. It connects us, informs us, inspires us, guides us and unifies us in a way that would otherwise be impossible. Media allowed me to see my sister seconds after she was born, it reassured me that my older sister was safe after the terror attack in Barcelona, it helped me cure my first flu away from home, it helped me get to university this morning, and entertained me whilst I waited for the bus and the train and my friend and my pizza delivery. To me, media is not only crucial to my survival in Amsterdam away from my beloved family, but it’s also integrated into my life in so many ways that I couldn’t imagine a world without it anymore. Elodie Behravan