Why I Heart My Media

media allows me to be in touch with my friends and family. when i moved to amsterdam i new no one. not a single person. thanks to many internet communicators i am able to talk to my loved ones every moment i want to, i need to. moving for studies abroad definitely wouldn’t be an option for me if not for that, especially after lockdown when i got used to seeing my closets ones every day. even tho media sometimes suck: all the hate speech, messing with mental health and so much more ;i still love the opportunities they give. during lockdown i didn’t see my grandparents, i didn’t wanted to jeopardize their health, thanks for media i was able to see them and talk to them without having to scream from the street to them standing on a balcony. now when i moved abroad i LOVE facetiming my best friend for a morning coffee and a cigaret, we wouldn’t be able to do that from 1300km apart if not for media. LOVE is such a big word i wouldn’t use to describe my relationship with media, but being able to communicate with my loved ones comforts me and i LOVE that. so thank you media for keeping me comfy.

Instead of using the term ‘double-edged sword’ as I have seen many of my peers use, I opted to use ‘dysfunctional’; I chose to do this because referring to media as a double-edged sword would mean that media itself is hurting me but I believe we are just hurting ourselves. Its a bit like saying ”guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. The problems we have with today’s media such as bullying and the problems that come with it like depression and body dysmorphia, isn’t due to the platform but rather the individuals using it but the platform receives the hate.

As I mentioned before, my relationship with media isn’t perfect, its dysfunctional. It’s like a toxic relationship, we both depend on each other to function but it hurts. It has become an unhealthy addiction to the point where I wouldn’t know what to do if my wifi and 3g suddenly stopped working. I would feel frustrated, hopeless and unimaginable bored. I can’t remember the last time I was truly disconnected from everything.

Despite everything, I think media is great. Its amazing. It cures my boredom, offers me any bit of knowledge I could want and connects me to my friends and family all around the world. Media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have become vital infrastructures for many societies and have essentially become extensions of myself.

Alex Azzawi, 13885766

I see how my media shapes accordingly to what I lack. If I lack entertainment (I am bored in other words) I can watch Netflix. If I am homesick, my media becomes something else. It is a platform to communicate with family and friends. If I am out of the loop, my devices have all the necessary news outlets I can wish for.

I heart my media because it always shapes to my needs, and it is always there for me.

Bence Simon – 13077163

Stories allow us to communicate and empathise. They are a safe mechanism to gather people around a bonfire and amuse them with our narration.

In response to our human need, social networks have quickly become the ideal place to tell stories: more specifically our story.

Social media tell about us or rather: our own version of ourselves.

On a platform I can tell the story of my life but in a personal and revised version. It shouldn’t be seen as lying but more as point of view. Who establishes what is true and what is not? I’m free to feel like a fashion blogger, and who cares if I’m actually not? I have the right to portrait myself however I want. 

And that’s not all.

These platforms give us an audience.

Humans want, demand attention…and if telling a story is the most effective method to get it, doing it on socials guarantees us the maximum audience possible. The more people we have in our ranks of followers  more understood we feel.

We want to be present, to make our voice heard, possibly stronger than that of others. We want to be seen, we need to be seen because we feel like we don’t exist if no one looks at us.

With social networks we all become protagonists, everything we publish becomes a form of self-celebration.

Social media just offers us all the tools to tell a wonderful story with what we have available every day: ourselves. 

Student ID: 13417819

Media nowadays is either seen in most cases as a levianthan power that will ruin your life and if you use it too much, you will slowly see yourself fade away from society( For me i dont believe that is the case). Or as a woundeful tool of communication and entratainement

You see, I love my media as much as I hate it. I love it because I can talk with my family and friends back home whenever I want. I love it because it helps me stay updated on what is going on in the world nowadays. I love it because it allows me to write this by simply pressing on bottons. I love it because after a hard day of work or just a tyring day I can turn on my media and just leave for a couple of hours. Media allows us to stay connected and maintain links.

But I also hate it. Not because I spend too much time on it or because it affects my health, but it shows you too much of the world. That might be through picutures of the carabien, or through some 20 year olds vlog in kenya. It makes it less impressive because in some shape or form we have alredy experienced part of it while sitting in our couches home. That is my problem with the media. It takes away from reality, giving us a premautre version of realitythat isn’t as fulfilling, if that makes any sense. It is hard to let your imagination flow when you know too much.

I think the media is like anything else in this world, too much of it and you will drown, too little of it and you will die of thirst.
STUDENT NUMBER: 13618520

It was the first time in nineteen years that I had been so far from home, a full 7,833 kilometres. I could not find anything familiar in this land and loneliness clung to me. In the two months I’ve been here, I’ve barely spoken my mother tongue. I began to miss home. And because of my country’s policy requirements, it might be three or five years before I can go back.
I didn’t use my mobile phone or computer much before I went to university. High school students in China tend to be like this, with schools and parents convinced that electronic media distracts from the time left for study. But now, everything has changed. I use media devices frequently and extensively. As long as I’m awake, I’m looking at my phone (if I’m not looking at my computer). This is most likely out of a sense of revenge to compensate for my infrequent use of media devices over the past few years. But there is another, more crucial reason, I am dispelling my loneliness through online media.
I have daily video calls with my family via WeChat. One call is over an hour long and I basically do this with all my relatives who have phones that use WeChat. But at home, I am a quiet and non-verbal person. I often didn’t say a word to those relatives for months. I never used to use WeChat except to read my high school teacher’s notifications. Now I feel like WeChat is like a piece of driftwood I encountered in the ocean, and I need to hold on to it as if it were my last link to the world.
I still don’t like WeChat, I hate the setting that automatically deletes documents after seven days of not saving them, and I hate the fact that my phone can’t sync with my computer, but I’m almost grateful for it all the same. If I hadn’t come here to study now, if I had come here even ten years ago, I think I would have gone crazy in less than a month because I missed home and had no one to communicate with. For the first time, I felt that the media was so important.
I am well aware that I am now overly addicted to the media, and while it brings me surprise and relief like driftwood in the sea, it also wants to pull me down like a sticky bog. Just the day before yesterday, I had just spent a whole week reading an online novel. One might think that’s nothing when hearing that expression, but what if that whole week means staying up until 6am every day reading nothing but web novels? I have to say, I loved that novel but I hated how out of control it felt. It made me feel like I was being exposed to a spiritual opiate.
Reason told me that I should refuse, that I should focus on my studies and my life, that I was supposed to do, but a voice in the back of my mind said: admit it, you just like this feeling, this feeling of being addicted and not having to think about the outside world, that you are in another world, the online world. Now I will swipe through social media for hours before going to bed without any sense or motivation. Crying and laughing at things that are thousands of kilometres away from me or fictional. I feel like I’m being divided into two people, one increasingly anxious about the status quo I’m addicted to, and one focused on immediate pleasures, just as online media increasingly amplifies the dichotomy.
Whether it’s driftwood or a mud puddle, no matter what psychology I have about it, I can’t leave it anymore, I’m like a patient undergoing Stockholm by the media, attachment and fear at the same time.

Student ID：13554557

 Liefde is een breed begrip en kent ontelbare definities.

Media is overal en kan niet uitgeschakeld worden. Door media ligt letterlijk de hele wereld aan je voeten. Het biedt je de mogelijkheid om binnen een paar seconden contact te maken met je geliefden, die wellicht mijlenver van je verwijdert zijn. Neem bijvoorbeeld de app Facetime of Skype. Door middel van deze apps  kun je elkaar spreken en zien via je beeldscherm. Hierdoor kan je jouw persoonlijke verhalen, passies, en emoties delen ondanks je niet bij elkaar bent.

Zelf heb ik een haat-liefde relatie met media. Het gemak wat ik ervaar door media is ontzettend prettig. Sinds kort woon ik niet meer thuis, hierdoor hecht ik steeds meer waarde aan media. Wanneer ik het thuisfront mis kan ik snel een belletje plegen om weer even de vertrouwde stem van een familielid de horen.

Maar er ontbreekt toch een essentieel element, wat media je niet kan bieden: aanraking. Een hand op je schouder als teken van trotsheid, een aai  over je bol als teken van vertrouwen en een stevige knuffel als teken van liefde. Hoewel media je geliefd kan laten voelen, zal het nooit het gevoel evenaren van een warme liefdevolle knuffel. 

Studenten ID: 12685542

I realized that I only started thinking about my media and its impact on me when I start taking this course. As I was brainstorming for this blog post I noticed that media has been benefiting my life since a very young age. I found it interesting that I’ve never reflected on my love for my media before, as using it has become a habit & a common practice in my life. But this blog allowed me to reflect on my own media and appreciate everything its done for me.

Going back six years ago, when I moved away from my home country and started living in the Netherlands ever since. 11 year old me thought this was the worst thing that could possibly happen, as I didn’t yet understand the power of my devices. What I didn’t expect is to maintain such strong relationships with my friends and family till this day. My devices have given me so many opportunities to maintain strong ties with everyone back home. I am able to call, FaceTime and text them every now and then. This has reassured me that every time I visit nothing has changed, and our relationship is as strong as it was before the move. This is why I love my media, because even living in different contents couldn’t affect my relationships. Not only can I interact and connect with everyone, but I can also bring them along with all the experiences I’ve had in The Netherlands whether thats by posting on my social media or telling them about it through the phone.

Another reason why I love my media is that it has allowed me to document important experiences I have had through out my life. Due to camera I have been able to document significant moments of my life. Whether it was a moment where I was experiencing something new or if it was a moment where I felt happy, proud excited etc. My media has made it possible for me to look back on my memories, and has given me a nostalgic feeling. As I am able to relive these moments and re-experience the same emotions I had at the time. Not only can I look back on all my past experiences, I am also able to share these moments with people I care about through my social media. Which has made me feel more connected, as I am sharing intimate parts of my life with them. Due to cameras I can re-live some of my experiences which I forgot even happened. For example I can look back at my younger self and get to know her better.

Overall, I would say I love my media due to these reasons. I believe that all the positive aspects of my media makes me forgot the times where my devices decided to stop working when I needed it the most. Also makes me accept the fact I live in public, or that I’ve become more addicted to my devices.

13953664

I am 19 years old, turning 20 in December. At the age of 17 – the end of my junior year in high school – I started experiencing chronic pelvic pain. It was getting worse over time. Ultrasounds, colonoscopy, SIBO test, lab tests all came back normal. The symptoms lasted for over a year and I had no diagnosis. Desperately searching for relief I took to the internet and started doing my own research. I joined a facebook group for women suffering from endometriosis, which was the initial diagnosis that my doctor suspected in my case. I also followed a few accounts on Instagram that aim to spread awareness about endometriosis. Jenna, who runs the profile endometriosis.jenna, was kind enough to answer my questions when I slid into her DMs. 

My ob/gyn was not very willing to confirm the suspected diagnosis with any more specific tests. The facebook group was where I found the information about gel sonovaginography – a special kind of ultrasound that can show endometriosis adhesions. Other group members shared, which doctors in Poland (my home country) perform this type of examination. A month later I went to Warsaw for my sonovaginography. It turned out that I do not have endometriosis. The doctor suggested PCS – Pelvic Congestion Syndrome – as blood was buzzing in my dilated veins. Had it not been for the facebook group, I would still believe that I have endometriosis and limited treatment options.

Searching for doctors on the internet

The doctor in Warsaw told me that PCS is managed by vascular surgeons. Good luck finding one who has any idea what PCS is. It is a relatively new condition (was first described in literature 20 or 30 years ago). I managed to find a doctor close to where I live on the internet. He is the only one in the region. If he didn’t have an online profile, I would go from one vascular surgeon to the other and so on, trying to find the one. 

He referred me for a CT scan. The scan suggested sth else than PCS – an extremely rare condition called uterine arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Again, I found a facebook support group with only 400 women with this diagnosis from all around the world. AVMs can rupture and cause extensive bleeding that may lead to death. After I got the diagnosis, I got slight bleeding in the middle of my menstrual cycle. I didn’t know if that was a sign of an upcoming rupture. I was wondering whether I should bother my doctors with this problem or wait. I asked in the facebook group. The amount of support I got was astonishing. – If the scan shows all is okay – then that’s okay, no need to feel like you’re bothering people – it’s actually responsible to manage a known condition if you can and if anyone makes you feel otherwise- then that’s their issue – said one of the women in the group. They asked me to keep them posted. After all, the bleeding was nothing to worry about, but I got support through media when I needed it.

The vascular surgeon wasn’t sure what to do with me. He still believed it was PCS not AVM. Again on the internet, I found a clinic in Poland that deals with both of these conditions. They are pioneers in central Europe. I read the information on their website and filled in a contact form. Thanks to media, you no longer need to drive 6 hours for a consultation. They emailed me back within a week asking me to send my results. I used wetransfer. A month later they made an MRI to give me a definite diagnosis – PCS. Another week later they performed embolization to shut off the varicose veins in my uterine venous plexus. Recovery was a bumpy road and again the ladies in the facebook support group helped me go through it.

Fellow sufferers understand

My family was sorry for me, but never understood what I was going through. Neither did my friends. Fellow sufferers understand each other, cause every day we face the same pain, the same challenges, the same lack of understanding from the society. When you are a woman with a health problem, you need to fight for yourself to get a diagnosis and treatment, which is emotionally exhausting. Facebook groups – of course coming with a risk of trolls – give a safe space to vent. They are like live support groups, but those you won’t find in every place when you have a relatively rare condition. There is also an instagram profile that I follow called thechronicallyhonest. The person who runs it illustrates the feelings you face when battling a chronic illness. Her posts were so relatable that I would cry when scrolling through her page. The people in my media made feel less alone.

Spreading awareness

Another thing that I love about media is that they can be used to spread awareness. That’s what I do now. I interviewed one of my doctors about PCS and published the interview in a newspaper both in print and online, so that other women can have easy access to information about this illness, its causes, symptoms and treatment options. I also logged into the page for my condition at StuffThatWorks, which crowdsources information about best treatments for certain health issues. In total it has 2 milion members.

I also made an appearance at Sickboy Podcast where interviewed by Jeremy, Brian and Taylor I told the entire world about my experience with Pelvic Congestion Syndrome encouraging women to advocate for themselves.

Media are my life

Media not only saved my life. My life is all about media, cause I am a journalist. I started young – running a school newspaper for four years. Then I joined the team of young people that created a monthly addition to the local branch of a national newspaper. My portfolio granted me a place at The School of The New York Times, which was the best adventure of my life so far. After graduating high school I was offered a full-time job at the local branch of the national newspaper (Gazeta Wyborcza). I took it. Even though it was the time when I was battling my debilitating illness, I managed to continue working because I only worked from home (due to COVID). After I left for Amsterdam, I switched to part-time. It is amazing that being so far from Poland, I can still write and publish reportages and interviews in my newspaper.

This job is stressful, demanding and frustrating. You can’t get it out of your head even on a free day and you are always under pressure. Why do I love it then? Because I am crazy? This too probably. But I love it mainly because I love people. It is a special feeling when a mother of a dying child reaches out to you asking to tell their story, when a woman who was denied embriopatological abortion shares her story, when a member of the parliament sends you a text saying „thank you for this article”. Every day this job brings me a wide range of emotions. It is impactful. I don’t care that the president of my city hated me after I wrote about the poor salaries of social workers cause a week after the publication they got pay rises. Can you change the world with writing? Not the entire world for sure. But I keep changing people’s worlds through media. And that’s beautiful.

Media has played an extremely important role in my life, and has done since the moment I was born. As a child born in the 21^st Century, the significant role that media was going to play in my life was inevitable. Throughout my lifetime, I have witnessed the release of the first smartphone, and the important role it has come to play in our modern-day society, the change from traditional CD’s and DVDs to the use of online streaming platforms such as Spotify and Netflix. The weight of modern-day media in my life is drastic, and something all of us experience in our day-to-day life, often employing it subconsciously and understanding its normalcy in our society today.

Regardless of these impactful technological advances, media was going to play a vast role in my life. My family were some of the first filmmakers in the United Kingdom, beginning to create and produce the first films, alongside the Lumière Brothers who were based in France. The advances they made and dedication to their art is a momentous drive for my love of media. Studying the various degrees and changes of it allows me to understand the role my ancestors played in allowing film to reach the position it in today. The opportunity to develop my understanding and learn about the detail, thought and dedication placed into making film, allows me to feel close to my family and appreciate the foundations they successfully created. Studying media has developed my admiration for their hard work and following in their footsteps is an experience I do not take for granted.

Student ID: 13733532