I think my love for Media started at an early age. I still have vivid memories of playing VHS tapes and later DVD’s of old Hanna-Barbera cartoons that my parents had gotten from the Western European world. Growing up in a pre-EU Eastern European medium, Western Media was the only way I could learn true democratic and politically correct views of the real world.
My favourite activities as a kid were playing Club Penguin and later Minecraft. Every gloomy rainy boring day was filled by tremendous amounts of fun provided by these games. Club Penguin increased my social skills and Minecraft expanded my creativity.
Later on in life, when I started Romanian Middle School in a “Gifted Children” institution I would escape the pressure and stress caused by 5-8 hours of homework a day by watching YouTube videos and enjoying funny skits. At about the same time, I had created a YouTube channel on my own where I would post skits with my friends, sadly I have deleted those clips after I had experienced some bullying in early teenage hood.
Around the same early teenage hood I had noticed that something about me was different , the culture in Eastern Europe, even nowadays is deeply homophobic and especially bi-phobic. Western Media helped me accept myself for who I was, no matter the discrimination that I had received.
Now, here comes the 10%. For a long time, I had noticed that social media algorithms tend to promote shock inducing content and even bullying to create more engagement. Following the allegations about the way Facebook prioritises their profits over the mental health of young teenagers made me absolutely furious, it inspired me to want to learn about that and maybe change something.
Learning to accept media and see why I love it was all determined by Mark’s amazing work and I am incredibly grateful for that.
13842013, George Cristian Cotea
Why I Heart My Media 