Why I Heart My Media

I heart my media because it allows the world to shrink…we can communicate and interact with individuals and groups of people that are hundreds of miles away. My twin sister bugs me through media by skyping me every time I’m online….

Media allows me to vent, create, explore, and be happy. All of which have become essential actions in my everyday life. They let me live outside of my world of homework, reading, meetings, and more homework. I heart my media because it gives me ‘ME’ time.

Here’s a short little blurb I wrote a few years back about a vertically challenged, blue-eyed girl I know. I think it captures how much I heart media, and how much ‘heart’ is actually in media.

“I don’t know why it’s so painful as it is. I mean, it’s a just a text message. A series of 0’s and 1’s being shot through the air at 186,000 miles per hour towards a control station and 186,000 miles per hour back through electronic landscapes and digital dreams to your phone.

It’s just a packet of information. A programmed command for a cell phone to receive. A dizzying whirl of numbers and programs swirl bits of data in spiraling circles just so your dazzling blue eyes can look on to a little backlit screen, tell your brain to decode the symbols that lay in the glow, and then you’ll smile, frown, furrow your brows, or maybe make a somewhat cute slanty face not unlike this one,

“ : / ”

I guess it’s similar to postal notes. But emotionally charged penscript is replaced with strings of symbols and abused punctuation

“You look gorgeous today. Semicolon End Parenthesis.”

“Blame the curvatures that dimple your cheeks like tiny bowls of wine. Less Than Three”

It’s the age of letters sent in synchronous heartbeats instead of longing-filled postal weeks. SMS messages pitter-patter back and forth. Vibrations of electronic infatuation light up pockets with a musical rhythm. An unspoken electricity is buzzing relentlessly between two seven digit numbers.

Until it skips a beat, maybe a hiccup.

And then it flatlines,

And It’s over.

I don’t know why it’s as painful as it is. It’s just a text message. A series of 0’s and 1’s thrashing violently through the air to make it to your little backlit screen so those dazzling blue ocean eyes can talk to your brain and tell it what to make of strings of symbols and abused punctuation, that is, if those dazzling sky blue ocean eyes and mind of yours decide to make anything of it at all.”

I love my media because my cell phone keeps me in contact with the people that matter most to me. I love music a lot as well and today its easier than ever to browse for new music or share music with others.Just the other day I was sitting at the cafe in collins talking about music with some friends.  My friend, kate, mentioned The Dodos. Another friend had never heard of them but all Kate had to do was take out her Iphone, press play, and there we were listening to The Dodos in the middle of the cafe. Many things are just that easy now when it comes to media.

As a mediocre musician, I rely on media in my work. I lay down a track in Bloomington, export it as an mp3, and email it to my producer. My producer cleans it up and emails it back, at which point I upload to my website. From there, it’s downloaded to mp3 players, added to YouTube, or linked to others via Facebook. Someone tweets an idea or request. People email suggestions. Without these media outlets, I wouldn’t know how to promote, and I wouldn’t get the feedback I need. That’s why I love media.

I heart not just my media, but really all media because of what it is capable of achieving. Even if I have never been France, in an instant I can find out what is going on in terms of current events, I can find out how to get from any hotel to a coffee shop and I can talk to my friend in France while seeing her if I want to. Media allows me to see things that I wouldn’t be able to normally see and learn things that I wouldn’t normally be able to learn. Similarly I can make a video, throw it online and suddenly anyone with an internet connection can see it. If I make a funny short film that I want Aunt Betsie in Montana to see, I put it on youtube, send her the link and she can go online and watch it just as easily as Uncle Ron in Florida. Also if I’m applying for that internship with Paramount and I want to show them my reel, all I have to do is send them a link. Media allows me to communicate a message to anyone I want anywhere just as easily as if they were in the same room as me. That is why I heart my media.

Film has always been my favorite type of media. Movies can serve so many different purposes as a media outlet; they can be used to inform, to entertain, to frighten, or any other of a number of things.

I heart my media because I can get followed/stalked/+1’d. Media gives me connections to people from across the globe. And because I can make this.

I heart media because it allows me to connect with my friends and family even when I am far away. I love being able to Skype with my friends from other schools and keep in touch with them.