Why I Heart My Media

Media is a complex thing. Some will think about their social media, some will think about movies, some will think about communication and some might even think about books. The perception of media can be interpreted in different ways. When I think about media, I think about escapism in books, movies and series, but I also see media in dangerous way for one’s mental health. 

I’m so grateful that media exist in the way it exists nowadays. As a student, but even as a human being, life can be hard, it can be stressful and painful, and sometimes you just want to escape the real world. Most of my life I’ve been grateful to live in this world with how it is today, but almost every time I want to escape it. My life can be overwhelming, stressful and just in generally painful sometimes. I can, because of this, be very grateful for media and especially for books, movies and series, because for me it is a way of escapism. I’m my happiest when I am reading books or watching movies or series. So, I am really grateful for media. 

Despite that media is a form of escapism for me, I also despise media. You could say that I’m old school, because I don’t like to call or message people on phones, I would rather talk with people face-to-face. But because I don’t talk too much with people online, I am always getting excluded form parties etc., because they think I’m not social or anything, but I am, just not on social media. For people who have to deal with it, it can take a toll on their mental health, as it did with mine. That’s why I also despise media, because it can be dangerous for some people, because it can affect someone’s mental health. 

That’s why I love, but also hate Media. 

Good morning my online friends, in this short post I will share my media experience with you guys and precisely why do I think that social media is way worse than drugs.

Let’s go back to the days when we didn’t have the opportunity to use social media, or when even phones weren’t that much of a thing. When we used to actually talk to people in person, when we went out, we didn’t use the phone on the table that much. In my opinion, social media has ruined so many relationships. A lot of people are trying to be those perfect Instagram couple without any problems” the perfect couple” but while trying to achieve that they are ruining the (concept of a )relationship. They start to forget who they are, why are they with their partner, their values, this intimacy/privacy between those two people are gone. Or another example is FaceTime/Viber/What’s app/Instagram… Few years go we were actually excited about our loved ones to come home to talk with them to know how their day went, what did they do… But now because of social media we know everything in advance, we are not that excited to see this person at the end of the day and to know how their day went. Our generation can’t go even an hour without checking their phones it become a sort of obsession. Even the elder generation has started using this kind of technologies. Even-though I personally use social media every day, I believe that is has in some way ruined our lives.

Boris Fayad

I love media. I use it more as a friend for times that I want company. I use films to tell me perspectives and stories that I cannot experience or imagine. I use music to help me put my feelings onto words and rhythms. With this much closeness, I’ve made the media I use more intimate and more personal. With the help of films, I was able to go through dark times. Seeing different people that I will never meet go through their problems helped me zone out from my real life for 2 hours and not think about anything besides the characters’ conflicts in the movie. Even though my parents’ jobs are not even related to any form of media, I was raised with movies and music in my life. I was raised with a cinema culture. It was a weekly activity and I was always encouraged to see different films, different genres, and different cultures. I felt comfortable in a theatre, it felt right whenever I have something going on in my life regardless of it being good or bad. Films have special meanings for me both in how I was raised and in my own life as well. This type of media has allowed me to understand many questions I had about myself, about life and about other people, and how they can think. It also created a closer bond with my parents, as both of my parents are working parents, we would always separate times for going to the cinemas and to spend time together. So; I love media, I love what it has allowed me to experience, I love what it has given to me and what it has taught me.

Student ID: 13653261

Thinking about this statement has made me realise I have a love-hate relationship with media. Despite the fact that I’ve only ever known a mediated society, and have no real idea of what life without media would look like – I find myself often wondering about it, especially seeing the effects media can have on us.

For obvious reasons, media are great and I like it. It allows you to keep in contact with people, become aware of the things happening in the world, expand your knowledge, pass time, keep traces of time passed – good times. Reading, watching, listening; it can make you feel so many different emotions, it can make you discover things about yourself, and connect with other people who feel the same.

Despite the latter reasons, I can’t help but dislike media as well. At the same time, media inevitably makes us waste a ton of time. It makes us live in our own worlds, on our devices. Or, it can makes us live in virtual worlds that don’t exist, and make us forget about the connections and relationships we have in the real world. Media can ruins relationships; create some based on lies; distract us, unwantedly intrude in intimate moments and so on.

I am the first to admit I am greedy with my media – I use it and depend on it a lot, even without realising. But that’s what makes me weary of it; the dependance I have developped, and for the reasons stated above.

I said I find myself wondering what living was like before media became a part of our lives. I want to know if I’d experience the same things differently, experience emotions differently, see the world differently. Nonetheless, I am happy to be a part of this mediated world, enjoy using media and feel privilidged to be able to do so…

….I mean, it’s only a subconcious love-hate relationship 😉

Student ID: 13577883

Nowadays, we live in a world of media. It’s everywhere, and it is difficult to escape from it. Many people find the increasing use of media in our everyday lives to be a negative thing, as the amount of media we are exposed to can become overwhelming at times. However, I have never thought of it in that way. Media are not good or bad , they simply are what they are, and we should decide how they affect us.

For me, media were always an escape, specifically social media. I always liked connecting with people, learning new things, sharing my life and learning about others. As we know, everything seems better and simpler online, which concerns me, yet comforts me in a way. I have noticed that my relationship with social media grew stronger and more intense ever since the pandemic broke out. I started to rely on social media in a way I used to rely on other people. For example, during lockdown my main source of entertainment was my iPhone and all the social media apps on it, not my friends. There were countless days I spent more time online than offline. This has changed as things are getting back to ‘normal’ again, and I’ve been learning to use social media in moderation and to my benefit.

Student number – 13976141

Media and I have a love-hate relationship. I love it as it keeps me company when I’m lonely. I like it when all I feel like doing is laying in my bed and watching Netflix. I appreciate that sometimes it makes me forget about the bad things. But sometimes it also makes me miss out on some important things. That’s when I hate it, when I’m so immersed in it that I don’t notice time passing. I love all the possibilities that it gives me, the feeling of belonging to a community. How I can share and receive from so many others, learn about them and the world around me. How it makes life easier in countless ways, gives me access to almost everything by just a few clicks. But even though I love it all about it, I hate it at the same time. Because sometimes it feels like it takes the essence out of life. Like if I can experience everything online, there’s no point in experiencing it in real life. It makes me lazy, not curious or keen to explore. That’s when I’m afraid of it. Afraid of how it’s influencing me and how it shapes my perspective on life. Scared of the fact that even though I know of many positive but also negative aspects of media, I can’t seem to have control over how and when I use it.

Student ID: 13992473

Ik zeg altijd al dat het me geweldig had geleken als we waren gestopt met telefoons ontwikkelen bij de klaptelefoons. Die telefoons waar je mee kon sms’en, bellen en hooguit snake op kon spelen. Maar niet meer. Hoe heerlijk en vereenvoudigd waren onze levens dan geweest.

I hate media. I’d often seek out hateful content intentionally, to some limited extent I still do. Much like others would seek to physically hurt themselves, I would go online to indulge in a more discreet form of self-harm. I’d go through posts by people who do not understand and do not want to understand, I’d read the comments, sometimes even getting into yet another flamewar in a vain attempt to defend my humanity -that they so relished in depriving me of-. Media provided a place for all these people to come together and circlejerk around their common hatred of “the others”. What would have otherwise been small pockets of vitriol sparsely spread across the globe, were, now, massive webs spanning every corner of the earth. Media led me to a dark place, a place of self-hatred and fear. I hate media.

I love media. When I was all alone in my room, crying in despair, media would let me reach out for help. When feeling down, I would go look at videos of cute animals or people, in faraway lands, enjoying life, and briefly share in their happiness. Even more recently, when I was sexually assaulted and had seemingly none to turn to, media gave me -and countless others like me- refuge. Through media, people suffering in silence, lost and alone, were given a voice, and it was powerful. Our small pockets of resistance were woven into a global bastion of hope and support. Media provided me with a glimpse of sunshine through my darkest hour. This is Why I ❤ My Media.

When i ask myself, what media has changed in my life, the answer i get is very simple. Media has shaped the person i am today and the life i am living.

I grew up in a Post-Soviet country, (and believe me, life there is much more difficult and crucial then in more developed countries) and media was my first step out from my country and culture and into the big interesting world we all live in. First of all, even when i was 5-6 years old, i used to watch cartoons and movies in different languages (mostly in English), even though I did not understand anything at first, i started to learn the basics that way. When i was around 7-8 years old, I discovered Youtube – platform which had any music my heart desired to listen to, and through youtube I fell in love with music – exploring different artists and everything about them.

So when i grew up and started to think about my career, I knew that I had to somehow be involved in media, I started to work at a local TV channel, and I fell in love with television that way, and how fun and interesting it is to dedicate your life creating media for others and yourself, but I still want to experience working with other types of media to really decide what i’m supposed to do with my life!

Today I am studying more about Media to try to deeply and truly understand how it works and I hope that my interest and love for it enough to continue to live my life with media. ))

I love my media because it yields endless opportunities. Not only is it easy to connect with people but also to keep in touch. This is one of the main ways I use my media as someone who has friends and family around the world. Belonging into a generation that grew up in media, it can be easy to forget how it allows endless knowledge and connectivity for us and it is impossible to imagine living without our contemporary digital culture.

Although media allows for self expression, art and spread of information, constantly living in media can get overwhelming for me at times.

Irem Yanik – 13831615