Why I Heart My Media

How can you not? You are media. Love yourself. 

Agathe Sklavenitis – student number: 13691686

These days I’m not really sure how to describe my relationship with Media. She and I have a complicated past.

Yes, I said she. I just have this strong belief that Media is too complex to be a man, but that is just my opinion. One day we laugh together and it can be one of the best days of my life. I share everything with her and tell her how my day has been. She will approach me with a warm smile and tell me how amazing that is and how happy she is for me. I’ve started to realise that Media is actually really good to me when I feel good, she gives me this extra boost of confidence almost nobody else could give me. You could say that she is my happy place, she is someone I go to when I want to feel some additional love.

 On the other hand, I have had really bad days with Media too, sometimes it’s just thunder and rain, everything comes pouring down at once and with plentiful anger. “I hate you! I never want you in my life again!” I’ve told her that many times. She seems to understand, but somehow she always comes back and tells me how much I miss her. 

So yes I would say our relationship is complicated. But the most important thing is that we try to keep it healthy and balanced. Even though I love Media and she brings me a lot of joy when I spend time with her, I also need to remember that she is not always good for me and that our space and distance from each other is equally as important.

Student number: 13217542

Love is a really strong word for me. It’s not very often when I can say that I LOVE something, but if I feel it, I don’t need a strong reason for that, I can do it unconditionally, accepting good and bad sides. The same for me is with media. I feel like it fills my life up with so many beautiful things, that I didn’t realise before.

This year is pretty challenging for me, I had to leave my family and friends and move to Amsterdam and I feel really homesick and lonely sometimes. However, I am thankful that I can stay in touch with my close friends, and I couldn’t do it without media. I am aware of their news, their feelings so I can be a little closer to them.

Media is a great tool to make your dreams come true. Nowadays, people can’t even imagine the power they hold. They have endless count of opportunities because of media. People can explore everything with media, and I don’t mean only the world outside, They can find out many different things about themselves too, searching and defining their personality. People find new hobbies and interests and have loads of information about them and keep in touch with like-minded people. For example, recently I found out that I really enjoy Russian movies that were filmed in the time of “perestroika”(aesthetic and plots are just immaculate). I would never found out it or even seen a single film if media didn’t exist. Most of my life is media and I feel like I am a part of it. I love life and living, so I can’t deny my love to media and I hope that this feeling is mutual.

For me, media helps people to be in touch with their feelings, love and explore things that are new to them and get deeper into already common things. I love media because it opens different sides in me, it defined me as a person, and I am very thankful for that. I am grateful to it for making me who I am now. My journey with media has only started, and I am looking forward for the future!

Student ID: 13930591

Why do I love media?

I was born with media

As soon as I was born, my parents started to film and take a picture of me.

I explored the world through media

With tv, radio, film, I can explore the world in my small country. I always listened to pop music, loved Hong Kong, US, France films, and draw my future in it.

I learned life by media

When my parents and sister were so busy taking care of me, I used to watch videos to make food for myself. And tv shows always keep me away from loneliness.

I received love from the media

Whenever and wherever I am, my friends and family send me a message of love, affection, caring. That is the motivation of life for me. It keeps me alive.

I send love by media

Of course, I send messages and videos to my family and friends. That’s how you keep relationships, connections, and love to be continued.

And I still live my life with media

That’s why I will forever love media

Student number: 13651579

Confined in my room between desk and bed I needed to “go” somewhere to feel less of the room around me. I found out my friends were using social media to stay in touch and communicate. I didn’t want to be out of the loop and lose contact with them. At that time I had prejudice about social media and refused to participate with trends. But I still casted aside my so kept principles and for the sake of it downloaded the media platforms that they were using. 

Media made me feel more self aware and aware of the world, if it makes sense. Learned many new things but I couldn’t name them. So much information in a matter of minutes was exhilarating, it made me curious even more and dive deeper into the internet rabbit hole. It is safe to say, being on social media all the time, every single day does something to you. As a result I became fascinated by the media environment and human behavior so much so that I decided to go study it.

Last year was a collective isolation or an isolated collectiveness. Communication then reached its peak, when we stayed in touch with people by a simple ‘share’ of a video or post. I think that the media solely got us through the quarantine and lockdowns. Never seen so many different kinds of people start to get interested in music, movies, fictional characters, books etc. as to seek out wherever little comfort they can, me included. It got to me that media is much more than phones and social platforms. I casted aside all my previous prejudices and approached the media environment as something unique that is yet to be untangled.

Student ID: 13909045

I’d like to introduce you to my best friend, she’s amazing and I love her but she is TOXIC.

She’s convenient to have around, often small, compact and she’s always down to hangout but she needs to be taken care of constantly or she’ll shut down. 

She’s always there to keep me company when things get awkward and my social anxiety kicks in but only in exchange for a wifi connection. 

She’s there to entertain me when I’m lonely but proceeds to taunt me with photos of people having fun, at parties, at school, during Christmas, during Birthdays. 

She’s almost always reminding me of everything I don’t have and everything I want. 

She encourages me to speak to potential love interests but never fails to show me they are liking other girls posts. 

She drives me crazy! Purposely guiding me down a pathway of jealousy and bitterness and envy, then innocently offering advertisements on therapy. 

And when I’m mad at her and we’re not on speaking terms, she still manages to appear in my room disguised as something else. But I always know it’s her. They stare and taunt and encourage, they shut down and entertain in the same distinguishable way she does too. 

When I try to forget about her she follows me everywhere. She’s almost always the topic of discussion in every group. 

I hear her name everywhere I go. Media this, Media that. Media. Media. I’ve had enough!

If she was really my friend and if she really wanted what’s best for me, she would leave me alone.

She’s so utterly obsessed with me, but at the end of the day I know I can never stay mad because as much as I like to deny it, I’m so utterly obsessed with her too.

Media is my toxic best friend, I love her and hate her. I can’t stand her but I can’t live without her. She’s like an addiction that I just can’t seem to sober up from. 

Student Number: 13579479

Why do I heart media? Do I even heart media?

I have always loved creating. And I always loved sharing. 

Maybe it sounds pretentious, but  I think that there is someone who cares about the things I have to show and tell or just that my content can enrich somebodies’ life.

As for many boys of the age around 11 or 12 years, my journey with social media started with Gaming content. The early 2010’s – the rise of games like Minecraft and the videos about them began. I spent hours of my life figuring out, how to get the best audio out of my 20 Dollar headset or to get a screen record software running. I just wanted to be like the ‘big guys’, that had thousands of people watching them playing a video game. Today I can only smile about that. Such insignificant content, when I look at that from now. But that time taught me something: I love media. I love people doing what they love. Presenting it to the world has been made possible by this fast-growing thing that gets everyone connected – the Internet, or to be specific – social media.

I think that time has brought up a generation with an insane amount of media competence, that can’t be taken away. We took weeks and months to teach ourselves very professional image, video, music or 3D software like Cinema4D, Premiere Pro, Photoshop or FL Studio.
Just because we wanted to create, maybe just because we wanted to see numbers go up and higher, as humans just like that. And sometimes we made a fairly good amount of money by selling design work in exchange for Paysafe Cards, just to blow that money on our Steam account to buy games, we shouldn’t be allowed to play. My journey went on. After some, for the lack of better words, ‘shitposting’ I went on.
With me starting to ride mountain bike, there was no doubt that I won’t be making videos about that. Exactly this was the time when my interest in producing professional media content really started. Everything before this time has rather been a boy producing amateur content creation, sometimes for a little bit of money. I got myself a good full-frame camera, paired with some 30-year-old lenses I found in my parent’s basement. It was difficult to get a nice picture due to the lack of auto focus function, especially when recording extreme-sport footage. When I was recording the first video for my channel, I didn’t know anything about filming, so I just went for it. Some people who were filming too made fun of me, because they didn’t believe a first timer with such a non-beginner friendly camera rig could create anything good. After many hours of editing, because I had to make all transition effects by myself, the video was done and today it has around 4000 views, which isn’t that much if you consider this video is around four years old, but most of the attention was three years ago.

More and more, people that didn’t know me in real life were watching my videos, which seemed just crazy to me. I realized, that I can actually reach people with my content. And my friends, who were also biking, were crediting me for my filming and editing skills.
Today, that stuff is still just oversaturated, overedited and amateur stuff.

Soon after school, I gained first experience as a self-employed Videoeditor, Photoeditor and Designer for the international market. I enjoyed working for clients all across the world, just with the skills I taught myself. I think this is the most interesting thing about kids from the early generation z and millennials too, that we grew up in a time, were sharing media was already a thing, but the path to it still required professional software to create things.
In today’s digital media, everything is created in minutes or seconds, just because it became so easy to just mask out something, using an app on your smartphone that facilitates your work. That the world came that far, of course is an astonishing technological masterpiece, but does make a lot of creative work that took many hours seem natural. Still, even this can be good, as nowadays we are focusing more on the creative aspects than the tools, when we are trying to create something. “The best camera is the camera that you own” is a statement, which can teach us a lot about digital creative work.
I moved on, made my living off working self-employed in that industry for a certain time until I realised, that this maybe isn’t the right thing for me. I always dreamed of making my money with social media, being my own boss and create content about the things I love to get more other people to enjoy them with me.
Started creating YouTube Videos about building mechanical keyboards, became quite successful regarding the niche tha I’m in. I realised that there are a lot of things about media that I wanna find out more about. 

My path to social media and to my current motivation for this study, has already been a long journey. What used to be more of a practical testing and discovery of possible fields of work, I now question and analyze. 

Student number: 13834541

Why do I love media?

We are submerged in a world full of media. We are surrounded by a wide range of media from a young age. We would not be able to imagine our lives without media.

I would say I have a love hate relationship with media. However, I let myself view media this way. Being able to FaceTime my family when I miss them, capture a moment on my iPhone camera whenever I want to, or sharing a wandering thought I had while walking the streets of Amsterdam, are things I find natural and normal. It is even beautiful that we have the opportunity to do all of these things. Nevertheless, why do we have the need to do all of this, and why has it become so standard.

When we go to a concert, why does everyone in the crowd have their phone up? Why cant we enjoy the moment, and fully emerge into the experience of having the singer right in front of us, not watching them, yet again, through our screen. If we look at this from a different perspective, we will have the memory of being at the concert, perhaps looking back at the videos, bringing a sense of nostalgia and joy.

I get frustrated and upset with myself when I have the need to share how I am feeling on social media. Am I searching for validation? Comfort? At the same time, it is beautiful that we have the opportunity to spread our thoughts and emotions with so many people, never knowing who it will touch or reassure that they are not alone.

When I was going through a tough time, I decided I wanted to disconnect and detox from social media. I deactivated all of my accounts, however, I still needed my phone to connect with parents and school. I noticed I suddenly didn’t spend two hours on TikTok, but I became more productive in my daily chores. ‘Detoxing’ from social media, however did not let me cut off people, it rather helped me save time from scrolling through feeds and profiles, which at the end of the day, felt refreshing.

Media is beautiful, it connects us, informs up, advances us and entertains us. The way we choose to handle social media is a matter of the individual person. The relationship I have with media helps me stay grounded. I know my limits, what effect media has on me and how i let if affect me, helps me reflect and realize the power media has over all of us, no matter what generation.

Student ID#13592556

Three different feelings, opinions, points of view on one of the greatest creation of human mankind.

🖤 Firstly, from my point of view media has been controlling too much of our lives. Therefore, I do not like media. I mad at it. I frustrated because it is totally ambivalent. We have the opportunity to maintain and manage our relationships all over the world, which is very effective. On the other hand, it tears us apart and starts to create a bigger gap between us than the actual distance. We think and everybody thinks that we are the leaders of it, but after some point we just lost keeping track of it. We do not know anymore who is in control. Who has the main power. It might be still us, or rather: media. Thus, Media gets my black heart, as for being dark but at the same time, still have something what we/I can love about it.

🤍 Secondly, Media has been good to us. It provides various information about basically anything. We can easily spread our knowledge even when we do not want it. It can answear for any questions which might be raised. Although, it still has its ying-yang contrast as in the previous paragraph. Media usully deceive us with fake-news, false facts. It might give us information which we did not want and can cause harm in our private or social life. Therefore, Media balances itself with a white heart, which represents pureness and helpfulness.

Media has a ying-yang effect in my life, the two heart (black and white) want to represent this.

💔 All in all, I would rather say I do not heart media. Or my use of media. Two years ago I was in an acting camp which has different theme every year. At that time, it was about tribes with shamans and spirits. The camp tried to create an enviroment, an overall feeling (which was by the way successfull) to experience what it could feel like back in the day when there were nothing. No phones, lights, power, media, etc. It resulted that we could focus much more on the present. And this does not necessarily mean that we talked more with each other, we of course did, but moreover, we had the time to realize where are we. What are we doing and where and how. All these questions were answered in that camp. I did not miss media at all. After the camp I was sick of using it. In conclusion, I experienced something back in that camp that changed my mind and my thoughts about media. I would love to experience this with so many other people, not just with my fellow campmates. Hopefully, one day our society will be offline. Together. Just us. In the present.

Student number: 13850946