Why I Heart My Media

“I hate (social) media!”

“That’s it, I’m logging off and never coming back.” Yet, I am back. Why?

 Yesterday I was scavenging through the depth of my daily Instagram feed update when I came across this post:

My interpretation of it suggested that the task of confessing someone’s feelings wasn’t carried out successfully due to some error that the system encountered. For some reason, it made me deeply sad, not only because a feeling was carried out by a dry, almost meaningless text, but because the media is the new channel through which we convey our feelings. Less words, less empathy, less physical touch, less emotions. But it is so tempting and so much easier at the same time. This endorses the point that media are pervasive, ubiquitous and intimate as learned in class. These sets of characteristics have always made them look unimaginably scary yet extremely attractive to myself. On one hand, I’m siding with the 12-year-old girl I was who decided to switch off everything and actually experienced some sort of small-scale “pop-culture isolation”, as my peers would dive into a whole world I had shut myself out. This feeling of being missing out definitely challenged my resistance, but I hated social media, didn’t I? So why do I need to “resist” something I hate, and that is just one button away to be at least figuratively out of my life? 

When coming about this matter, I always thought what I dreaded was the self-“selling” or self-promoting culture that the media are pushing. We have opportunities to be seen, therefore we want to be seen the most, to the point where we strategies the marketing of our own self, our own life. In a way, this really reminded me of a philosophy lesson I took in high school about the Master-Slave dialectic laid out by Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit: in order to achieve self-consciousness, one has to get through the struggle for freedom. In this context, the slave fulfills the masters’ needs, and holds a subordinate position, until the master realizes that they are actually enslaved as they are dependent on another emancipated individual. This totally resembles how I feel about media: we were media consumers at first, our lives have gotten increasingly easier thanks to media, to the point where we have become enslaved, and media is an entity by itself. At the same time, we are media producers, and therefore media production/consumption is totally and utterly dependent on us. 

This short entry briefly summarizes how I feel about media.

I love media. I adore it. It saved my life and it was the reason my life needed to be saved. It is not clear to me anymore how I was consuming media multiple hours every single day without truly being aware of the fact that I was not doing nothing, but rather I was consuming and letting myself be consumed. I realized that, personally, I cannot live in this hyperreality. This world where media is overwhelmingly everywhere, influencing your thoughts, habits, literally everything around you; controlling you, entering your life without any restrictions and boundaries, … How should I, ME, survive without involuntarily being changed into something I consumed? And that´s when it clicked for me: I can´t. I do not wish to stop consuming media, it is my source of inspiration (looking at all my favorite social media artists), my source of happiness (everytime my sister facetimes me), my source of excitement (answering the cute tinder guy), my source of knowlegde (with literally every book I would wish to read being there waiting for me to download them), and so on. I could list an example for every emotion.

And then it clicked a second time: The personal solution to my problem was simple: There is no boundary between life and media anymore, so this leaves me with the freedom to create my own boundaries, exactly the way I want them to be. I can decide what I want to consume, what I want to be consumed by, which strange thoughts I want to turn into mine, who´s opinion I want to influence mine. And if I don´t like something it is as easy as to mute/unfollow/block them; delete an app; de-register in order to stop them from spamming my mail.

It was this realization, or maybe this decision to be complete selfish with the way I use my media, that made me love it. It´s such a simple concept, but it changed my whole relationship to media. Be aware of who you let yourself be influenced by, set your boundaries where you want them to be; if you only want to use Instagram for art inspiration, then do so and that´s it. You could even make a new account for every specific thing that interests you, letting the algorithms work for you and finding the most amazing posts according to your interest, which is a fascinating idea to me.

Student number 13131990

(This is my generalized take on Gen-Z online activism)

To the times I was sure,
I would speak,
speak speak speak
defeat deceit
critique the elite
tweet then repeat
eliminate newspeak
I’ve got a stampede now,
fuck capitalism
we’re taking down Wallstreet!

words are power
3000 likes per hour
validation, I devour
speak up, coward
louder, louder, louder!

double tap, heartbeat
never close your screen on a downbeat
stunting better than an athlete
When all turns bleak,
use your voice and speak, speak, speak!

hold on,
“you can’t say that!”
proofread…
delete
delete delete delete
I’m growing feathers and a beak
everything seemed so sweet
followers deplete
I need to turn off my phone and go to sleep

reboot, publically apologize
I’m sorry I was hypnotized
I really do sympathize
I recognize
my integrity has been compromised
shit shit improvise

I’ve made an error
I’ll do better
pull myself together
act more clever

now I’m sure,
understand internet culture
I’ve re-established my stature
time for another grand gesture



By: Ghaliah Tahboub

Why I Love Media

I have many kinds of love for the media, sometimes I like, sometimes sad, and sometimes I hate the media. But these emotions that have always appeared have given me an inseparable relationship with the media, which has made me “love” for the media.
I like the media because I can learn a lot of knowledge and information in the media world that I cannot accept in the real world. The media made me feel the uniqueness of each individual. At the same time, social media such as short video platforms can sometimes capture the good side of human nature that we have never noticed in our lives. This allows me to see the beauty of the world.
The media also saddens me. Because many people care about the media more and more, everyone spends a lot of time on their mobile phones instead of family and friends. At the same time, the popularity of fast food culture has also made people more and more impetuous, and they are unwilling to spend a lot of time sinking their hearts to think about profound problems.
The media also made me angry. The media is uncontrollable and blind. Although there is a lot of information in the media, the information is not comprehensive. Many netizens become “keyboard men” because of the misleading information and the uncontrollability of the media. At the same time, I think that the media has separated us from the real world, and we cannot distinguish what is the information world and what is the virtual world. Even though I know so much is not good, I still can’t leave the media. Such a sense of powerlessness makes me very angry and at a loss.

_{student ID: 13716301}

I like media that curate.

Carefully distill information, those who know and understand,

Those who coerce us ignorant folk into knowing best, too.

The unanimities are oblivious, illiterate.

We are because we lack (form), (educ), (concentr)ation.

Where are the 

publishers,

editors,

librarians,

and academics?

Who are we to trust? 

One another? 

Another one? 

One one? 

Many others one? 

P    A       P       

O   U      O

P    T       S

U   H       T

L    O       –

I     R       T

S    I       R

M   T       U

      A       T

      R       H

      I

      A

      N

       I

      S

      M

Is new media (dis)connective?

Is full democracy (un)democratic?

My media is a human. He has qualities and incompetences, good days and bad days, mistakes and successes. This person evolves, he grows, as I do, as we do.

I entertain a relationship with this person, an irregular, emotional, fulfilling, sometimes toxic relationship.

But who is Mister media? 

Mr. Media is my adviser, he supports or critics my ideas or my projects, he gives me the tools to realize myself.

Mr. Media is my friend, he makes me laugh, spend fun time, entertain me.

Mr. Media is my psychologist, he gives advices, can heal me and protects me.

Mr. Media is my teacher, he shares the bank of knowledge he accumulates and I can also partly learn it.

Mr. Media is my co-worker, he works for me but at the same time I work for him, we are a team.

Mr. Media is my lover, he is always close to me or in me, we are in constant intimacy.

Mr. media is also a lair, he sometimes hides information or misinform me or can even completely change facts.

Mr. Media is a thief, he steals my information that I didn’t want to share with him. 

Mr. Media is a stalker, always looking where and when I go, knowing exactly what I like and what I don’t.

Mr. Media is an abuser, possessive, asking for attention on a regular basis.

Mr. Media is a kidnapper, he controls me, my views and my behavior, he puts me in a frame which is a prison.

Student number: 13867830

Every time I wake up, the first thing that comes to mind is grabbing my phone to check my socials. When there’s not much to see i just turn to YouTube, Netflix, or any other video streaming app for a few minutes before getting out of bed. That is how much I love media: it is how I start my day off. My media adventure doesn’t stop there though. Throughout the day i constantly check my Instagram and Whatsapp, and I really mean that. On an average, I pick up my phone around sixteen times an hour. Is that really because I love media though?

A little while ago my phone stopped working. It was stuck in a boot-loop (constantly trying to turn itself on and failing), so I could not use it until i had it fixed, which was only one day since it was so easy to fix that i could just do it myself. However, on that day, I still picked up my phone every other minute, only to realise that it was indeed still broken. I kept forgetting that i could not use it. Not only that, but I had never been as bored as I was on that day. Is that love or just addiction? My roommates said that it is indeed addiction and I should try to fight it. However, there is only one problem with that: I do not want to fight it. Media surrounds us whether we want it or not and I love it. It is even the reason why I chose to study Media and Information. Maybe I do rely on it too much and maybe the amount of time I spend consuming media is problematic, but I like it, and I recommend everyone to do the same. But who cares? This is just an addict speaking.

-Dries

People love and people hate media. Media informs people with right and with wrong information, media makes you connect with others and media gives us something to do while we’re bored. That’s why I love media. You can use it for so many things, for good and for bad. I like to use media to develop myself, increase my knowledge, make new friends, keep myself updated and laugh at memes. This is my favorite meme and I hope you enjoy it too.

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A post shared by Saint Hoax (@sainthoax)

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The reason for my love of media is the variety of entertainments it provides. My love of media began through my mother. She was a communications student and a radio DJ who loves everything pop culture related. She began expanding my repertoire by introducing me to movies such as the Sound of Music and Out of Africa. These movies shaped my understanding and knowledge of the world. As I grew older my passion grew. For example, I took higher level Film in high school and developed so much passion that I intend to delve into the world of film production. My growing knowledge in pop culture and media has also been extremely useful in making new friends in university and creating a connection with people in a new environment. Now more than ever I believe it is important that not only do we share our love for the things we are passionate about but use it as a vessel to spread positivity and awareness. 

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It is well known that Media is everywhere and we are part of the Media. As we consume the Media content we are producing the Media content at the same time. For me, social media plays a big part in my Media life, I love and hate it at the same time.

I found that social media apps like Facebook and Instagram are ways to connect with friends you don’t see very often. It is designed to help people socialize virtually. You are interacting with your friends by posting and liking pictures of sports, travelings, great dining experiences you had, even thoughts about anything in life. So the social media apps are very versatile and people are more and more relying on even getting addicted to them.

At the same time, social media is giving people many bad experiences. Firstly the pictures users posting are only represent a tiny fraction of their real-life and almost always they are manipulated. So it’s creating lots of unnecessary anxieties to its users over their appearances, lifestyle through competitions of account profiles. And it also has cultivated more narcissists as time goes.

Secondly, the social media apps didn’t give the social feelings it supposed to do. On the contrary, it has made people a lot lonelier. Due to the popularization of social media apps, people are socializing less in the real life. You could be sitting next to them but they are still paying attention to the apps instead of talking to you directly. Given the fact that body languages and tonality of words are impossible to communicate through smartphones. The only communications on the apps are like/dislike buttons and words of text. Sometimes people misinterpret the messages online so it creates misunderstandings. And waiting for your distant friends to like your pictures or replying to messages can bring more loneliness. So it has destroyed the social vibes people are normally having in the pre-social media era.

To mend these problems I think the tech companies should help people communicate better by using technologies like virtual reality so people can communicate their body language online. And it should change their profits maximizing purposes. Instead of acting as a bridge encouraging people to interact more offline in the real world.

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