Why I Heart My Media

When I got into seventh grade my parents bought me my first smartphone. This was my first own digital device. Like most kids my age I immediately downloaded every social media app I could think of and created an account. Especially Snapchat had my heart and the so called streaks were almost as intense as a mini-job. When I look at the pictures that I took back then I sometimes can`t handle the amount of embarrassment they evoke in me but I know that it was during that time that my passion and my true love for media started evolving and therefore I am grateful. 

Until today this has not changed. As for most people media is a big part of my life. First thing I do in the morning is look at my phone to check messages, read the news if I am feeling very productive and then open Tiktok which is always a fatal mistake.

I enjoy scrolling through Pinterest for hours; looking at outfits I can`t afford and places I want to visit. Or binge-watching every single Youtube video of Babish Culinary Universe, Emma Chamberlain and Cody Ko (even though I practically know them by heart) only because it gives me this feeling of comfort.

Obviously all this time spent on social media does come with negative side effects. 

For me personally the biggest issue was the content related to a very unrealistic and unachievable body image.  The algorithm makes it nearly impossible to escape a specific type of content once you have shown interest in it. But at some point I managed to find a solution for this issue, deleted all my social media accounts and had a fresh start. 

From that moment on I loved spending time with and in media. Mostly because it gives us endless room for creativity and imagination.

Other media forms such as books or film totally have my heart too. Books have always been my favourite form of escapism as they have never affected or harmed my mental health in any way. Since I was a toddler watching movies has been one of my most loved forms of entertainment and I could make movie nights on a daily basis. 

To conclude, I would say that I heart media because it is so diverse and for the many different possibilities to be creative and be inspired. 

Dearly,

In fact, I don’t have any preference or hate about media, I always consider it as an objective entity existing in our daily life.

To some extent, my opinion may sound like ‘techniques don’t harm’ or ‘techniques are neutral’. In Neil Postman’s point, he actually argues opposite opinion: every techniques burns with their own preference, or bias. But I think I am more positive. Because I believe the techniques, in the end, are used by us humans and how we use them determines the extent they affect us.

In life there indeed exist people who are addicted with media, but I do deem that there are people like me don’t want to spend too much time on media. It all depends us, we have the right to choose embrace it or even be swallowed by it, or we can just think it as a tool to help us, a place to hide real us, or a heave can escape to. It’s our choices.

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Over the last few years, media has become more and more important in my life.

At first, it was a place where I could just entertain myself by watching videos on YouTube, playing online video games and just searching weird stuff I was interested in.

As time went by, I started gaining more interest in the world of media and the internet and there it was when I opened my first account ever in the amazing platform of Club Penguin which changed my perspective on the use of all technological devices. I could spend hours on that platform having fun and chatting with other penguins.

After that I remember asking my parents if I could open my very own Facebook account because all my friends were opening their own, but in my case it took me a little bit more convincing to do because for my parents it was a big deal to let their little twelve year old daughter get into the unknown world of Facebook which they truly thought was a dangerous place at first, and nowadays the tables have turned because they use it even more than I do.

After using it for a while and having my first chat with my friends from school via Messenger, it slowly made me feel like I was in a safe space where I could express my feelings in a different way instead of face to face like in school. 

In this day and age I could say that the media takes a very important part of my life. I share my thoughts and feelings, what I like and dislike, my travelling, artsy photos, my taste in music, etc. One day I wish I could make an income out of my social media because it is something I enjoy spending my time on.

Since I was very young, I had friends that moved from my country to others but, because of the media, we never lost touch. I also have moved a lot in the past few years of my life and being connected to my friends ,even if they are thousands of kilometers away, has helped me feel secure that I could express any good or bad circumstances that went on in my life because I could always count on Media as my way of expressing myself.

Given that I have recently moved to Amsterdam, I have been video calling with my friends and family a lot and my dad always says: “ Thank God we can call each other anytime, wherever we are by just clicking on the screen, imagine living in the old times and having to wait for each other’s letters.” Without a doubt that is the main reason why I ❤ My Media.

Student ID: 13600524

Florencia Sicardi

Initially for writing this piece I had a whole different concept, but just before starting it I encountered this captivating quote by American writer William Faulkner and decided to connect it with my story about my relationship with the media. I do love my media, I believe that’s what makes our world so extraordinary and one of a kind, but the best way to describe it is with this quote: „You don’t love because: you love despite”. I decided to focus on the complexity of media and why I love them even though they have so many faults, but frankly, don’t we all?
To begin, let’s establish something, media are complex and full of surprises, that is why mine connection with media is not simple either. But to start with, the first and major flaw about my media is the „out of the blue breaking down”. Each one of us is familiar with a situation like that, when we need our device, our source of media and it unexpectedly stops working for some mysterious reason. I am not even capable to count the times when I went ballistic because I needed to have an internet connection, but my laptop did not want to cooperate and couldn’t connect to the wi-fi. But even though my media does that more often than sometimes I still love it. Second thing is the perception it gives me, on one hand I do understand that we live in media, but it doesn’t change the fact that I think about certain situations way more than I used to, before for example having social media accounts. I tend to overthink and compare my behavior and decisions with the things I see on Instagram stories or other social media posts, but who knows maybe without it I would also do it but in some other way. That is why I accept that and try to change my point of view, but the media unfortunately stands in my way and makes my life a little bit more challenging, but also more interesting. Moreover, I tend to be freaked out and terrified of the influence and control media has over me, I hate the fact that some of my data is somewhere I do not know, or someone might use it against me. But I am in the process of understanding the mechanisms and the fact that everything has influence on us and there is no solution for being entirely untouched by different kinds of suggestions and influences.
However, I love my media not only for the „despite” aspects, there are various situations when I am incredibly grateful that the world we’re living in is the media world, that I can experience life in a whole different way. Now that I live far away from my home county, my family and friends, my interactions with everyone close to me are via social media platforms. Recently in my home country there has been a huge wave of protests about the political situation connected with the European Union, I couldn’t go to the street and shout with my fellow citizens, fighting for the rights, but the least I could do was connect with the people protesting on the street in my homeland via social media. I could add a hashtag, raise my voice and show my standpoint and support thanks to the media. That’s what I appreciate and love about it, I can be a part of something important to me and the place where I come from, even though I am hundreds of kilometers away from the actual place of the event. But this kind of connection is not only with political issues, it also appears in my everyday life. Every weekend I join my family for a cup of coffee or tea and talk to them about my week just like I did back home in-person. Let’s not forget the pandemic when social media and all kinds of programs and websites played a vital role for supporting each other and interacting and staying updated. That also had it pros and cons, especially when it comes to the spread of misinformation and time spend in front of the screen, but those were one of the flaws I still accepted and learnt from, especially to be careful with what I read. But in general what media give me is mostly positive, they allow me to stay in touch and close to everything I love.
Accepting and confronting the flaws is what love is – „You like because, and you love despite”, that’s exactly what I feel about my media. There are things I hate about them, but I learn from it, I try to stay open-minded and be patient, what’s more I grew to appreciate the things it allows me to experience overall and stay grateful. 

Student ID: 13652400
Julia Kaczmarek

Films, series en tv. Dat zijn mijn manieren om uit deze wereld te ontsnappen. Ik steek het nooit onder stoelen of banken dat ik (nog) niet tevreden ben met dit leven. Ik ben niet de meest extroverte en ik heb best weinig vrienden, die ik nu we van de middelbare af zijn heel weinig zie. Mijn leven is saai en niet bijzonder. Hierdoor ben ik eigenlijk altijd al op zoek geweest naar een soort escapisme. Dit heb ik gevonden in films, series en tv. Als ik iets kijk vergeet ik de wereld om mij heen. Ik kan mezelf dan uitschakelen en voel ik mij ook echt de karakters van de film of serie. Ik kijk dus niet, maar ik beleef het echt. Op zo’n moment voel ik mij significant voor de wereld, alsof ik ook echt gezien wordt. Deze zoektocht naar het vluchten uit deze realiteit is ook de hele reden waarom ik media & cultuur ben gaan studeren. Doordat ik weet hoe belangrijk deze vlucht voor mij is, wil ik dit gevoel later gaan bieden aan mensen die hier ook naar op zoek zijn. We leven in een harde wereld met veel mensen waarvan de naam waarschijnlijk nooit door de wereld gekend zal worden. Als ik er later voor kan zorgen, samen met mijn media, dat die mensen zich ook maar voor een klein moment significant voor de wereld voelen, zoals ik dat voel als ik iets kijk, denk ik dat ik eindelijk tevreden ben met mijn leven. Daarom hou ik zo van mijn specifieke media.

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Media plays a role as a megaphone in our society. Through the media people can deliver their own voice and become united, which can be considered as one of the benefits of the media.  When an issue pops up, people develop and share their own experiences and knowledge through the media, which ultimately leads the society to be healthy. That is why I love the media. 

I experienced the power of the media. I was not really into social problems or controversial issues when I was young. However, I started to have interest in the field while living in a Confucianism country as a woman. I have experienced many gender discriminations, but I could not realize what the problem is. Thanks to the development of technology, I have been able to share and learn various social concepts in the media and realize what should be changed. In other words, the media is one of the factors making me be enlightened about social issues including gender inequality and freedom. I would like to keep encouraging all women to have equal social powers via the media. 

Similarly, there is another representative example showing the power of the media. In 2020, video showing racial discrimination towards the black had been rapidly spreaded out through the media. As a campaign supporting racial equality, a lot of people put hashtag of #blacklivesmatter. I also joined the hashtag campaign to be against to racial discrimination. The power of the campaign was amazing. It was a great opportunity to let people think about what kinds of social issues contemporary people have and make them take action to solve such issues and to live in a healthy society. Again, it shows how the media’s power is influential. As a student of the media and information department, I would like to be involved in making the media continue to have positive effects on society. 

Student name: Lee Jumi

Student number: 13548727

This year was different than any other I lived. Trapped alone in the countryside during the pandemic was quite a challenge. If we think about this scenario, it seems quite uneventful or basically dull. But if we think about it for more than 5 minutes, we should come to a very interesting conclusion. Is there any way we can feel BORED these days? Haven’t we got in our hands the most powerful machines with unlimited knowledge? They have many forms. Some of them are smaller, some of them are complicated and some of there are startling. Yes, I am talking about media. 

If you are a voyager, you wander around the world sometimes without any preparations. You meet new people, you learn new languages, you hear about the things you wouldn’t probably ever heard in any other place. Traveler is one of the most amazing ‘labels’ someone can have in my eyes. When I think about it more, I see a person full of passion, spontaneous, every new challenge is their new opportunity to grow. I can say I have always been that person, but pandemic has thought me that I don’t have to go one thousand miles with my backpack to travel. Think about it more, you have your laptop probably in front of you, right? What have you always dreamed of? Having friends all over the world, or maybe learning Chinese? Everything I have just mentioned is possible with few clicks on your device. We have unlimited access to things that we even don’t think about.

During quarantine, I thought I will start a ‘revolution from my bed’. Seems weird, quite ‘lazy’ someone would say. Having limited choices, at first, I thought why wouldn’t I start making money out of the internet. Yes, I did that. Then, I thought let’s meet some new friends, I always wanted to go to Italy. Yes, I did that too. I spend two days in Italy with my friends thanks to the Couchsurfing app (and of course my hosts). Then I got into abroad universities, found an amazing job, pass some marketing courses, or even play a role in advertisements. Everything I have just mentioned, I owe to the media. You see, I believe if you use media, but then you transfer what you gain there, to real-life- you do everything perfectly. You know how to use media if they benefit you positively in any way. Maybe you spend hours on TikTok, that’s fine, if you learn something this way. We cannot label media as ‘good or bad’. Everything can be labeled that way, focus on what are they giving you and what they are taking from you. If the media gives you more than they take, you are a winner!

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I can comfortably say I love media. Media is a great deal of who I am. Whether it is the tv shows and movies I watch, to the comments I get from other people on social media. I am not proud to say I have fully given into media, or that even if given the chance, I still would never choose to escape it, but it is true. Media allows me to escape reality. Yes, I know, juxtaposition. Escaping reality just to get entrapped somewhere else, I am aware. When life gets hard I am just one click away from becoming and living vicariously through anyone I choose, from any movie or TV show. I know I should be worried about how I willingly entrap myself in media, knowing how dangerous it really is, but for me it is a safe place, and I love it.

Blair Waldorf and Olivia Pope shaped most of my personality, is that necessarily a good thing? Probably not, but it’s not bad either. I owe them most of my confidence. While yes maybe I was escaping reality, I was also subconsciously (well and consciously) adapting some of their personality traits, as I saw too strong women and saw who I wanted to be like. Then again my 7 year old self also saw Hannah Montana as an inspiration and from her I took my love for music, and her sense of humour (which ok maybe that one isn’t great.) Still, looking at people you admire, even if they are fictional, and taking some of their positive features isn’t a negative thing. The problem is now that I am saying this I’m questioning which parts of my personality are real and authentically me and which ones I subconsciously took from all the media around me? Probably almost none are originally mine, which yes it’s sad, but it’s also reality. Media affects us so much that we not only don’t know what is real anymore, but we don’t even know which parts of us are real and authentically us. 

There are many small ways I love media. I can have music on my phone and listen to it when I am out, I can read on my phone without having to buy new books, I can call my family and friends, I can rant about my life on private Snapchat stories about things probably nobody cares about but I still do it because I can. I also really love media and in specific Taylor Swift as because of her, her lyrics and her modern feminist icon(ness), I was able to do an easy but wonderful Extended Essay for IB. While other people were doing economics, historical wars, and complicated biological analysis, I was listening to Taylors complete discography, (I only see positives here.) That was also the essay that showed me I really love and am comfortable living in media.

Student number: 13927035

I was raised in a household where travelling is valued above most other pleasures in life. I still believe to this day that embarking on a journey away from home is one of the most rewarding things anyone can do: there will always be something to learn, something to gawk at, and something to understand. Luckily for me, my parents showed me a magic trick when I was a toddler: All I had to do to begin my voyage to a destination far away was to sit somewhere and open a book.

A passion for books quickly transformed into a passion for stories and then into a love for films. Sitting in a cinema with the lights out, my eyes looking up, I find myself devoted to the images on the screen. Audiovisual storytelling is something to wonder at. So in my life, if there’s one part of media that I love, that’s film.

Films are powerful, astonishing devices. They’re a pact between filmmakers and audiences: “give me your complete attention, and in return, I will show you the boundaries of what can be imagined”. To be a film enthusiast is to walk in Alice’s shoes. To the willing mind, cinema is a gateway to other worlds and realities, from Middle Earth to a galaxy far far away and everything in between. To the willing heart, it is a mirror in which we see other versions of ourselves and the people around us, a way to live our most impossible fantasies. 

What’s not to love?

jmjt, id: 13799819