I can’t really remember a day without media. From a really young age, I was always really interested in all kinds of media (except anything that involved lots of reading). I spent most of my childhood playing video games, watching YouTube or TV, listening to music or just hearing a trashy talent show running in the background during dinner with my family and occasionally looking over to see what’s going on. My fondest memories would probably be getting home from school from the ages 6 to 10; just turning the TV on to see Pokémon and Naruto, and topping it off if Takeshi’s Castle was just pure bliss. Also, I even tried to have an own YouTube channel but the lack of views demotivated the 12 year old me pretty fast. What’s funny about this is that I barely ever used social media, even up until now. I still (mostly) use these the platforms as simple messaging apps and don’t really use them for their other features, well, at least not actively. I don’t know if it has to do with me or the platforms but I never really saw many reasons to participate in them. Sure, I was aware of what’s happening, but in a way I wasn’t. Of course, the big exception in my life is YouTube, which I, to this day, cherish like nothing else. It’s hard to say what’s keeping me glued on it but I feel like it still is this very special place on the Internet. I never really liked the other platforms. Instagram was too public for a shy me, Twitter too political, Snapchat is just a messaging app in my eyes, I like Reddit but it just doesn’t draw me in as much, and don’t even get me started on Facebook. YouTube gives me just this perfect balance of silliness, seriousness and everything in between, all perfectly tailored to me. And in the midst of this you still have this early YouTube spirit living on, just representing everything I love on the Internet. Sure, the YouTube landscape has undergone a tremendous of changes but I feel like many of the creators nowadays still recognize it as a certain, not independent, but (I really don’t want to use the term) ‘authentic’ platform. Well to me at least it seems like this is the case (and I do exclude the pile of arguably ‘bad’ YouTube channels). Oddly enough, I’m also the one person in media studies who basically doesn’t watch Netflix. I have maybe watched a handful of shows over the last 5 years. It was just never really appealing to me if it’s just to talk about them to my friends later, well then I might as well just watch something that I actually enjoy. I do have to make the confession that I love watching anime from time to time, even if it’s not much as it used to be… I don’t know where I would be without them to be honest. Probably not in Amsterdam. Or maybe yes? I also love that it gives and has given me the possibility to not only maintain and strengthen, but also start ties with my loved ones and friends around the world. Conclusions aren’t really my strength, so, yeah, I love my media.
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Why I Heart My Media 