Why I Heart My Media

I was born in media. I grew up within media. Everything around my life is about media. It used to be all about like, reactions, comments, who had the most compare to others. They became “hot Facebook” and gave themselves the invisible power, which everyone needed to follow them. It became a norm in my surrounding community, and I’m not too fond of it.

I started using media since I was seven. At that time, in Vietnam, we had another social media called “Zing Me”. That social media platform was similar to Facebook, but it had already developed a number of games and applicants inside it. Living in that community, I felt like somehow we could show off our true personalities because we appeared anonymously. No one actually knew about our survival. We went there, chitchat with a person, a group we didn’t know their face for a long time, but our stories were shared like we were soulmates. I really enjoyed these golden days.

With an excuse to connect with the global, the Vietnamese immigrated to Facebook when I was twelve-year-old. We were asked to use our real name, but not our insides anymore. People started to show off everything they had, bullied the one they did not like, and gave them the right to rule the community without knowledge. All of these actions actually ruined the online community.

Growing up in a traditional family, attending a traditional specialized class, everyone applied their standard, norms, and values to my life. I was told not to express myself, I was told not to become different than others, I was said to be domestic science, and I was forced to give up my dream. If I did not do that, my parents and classmates would kick me out of the whole family. For the readers, it could be seen as a threat, but it was true. At that time, I was into cosplay – “an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character”; but it was seen as a depraved culture for others. Everyone around me rejected that. The more I opposed them, the more they rejected me. To isolate me from my passion and interests, my parents confiscated my phone and laptop. For them, the internet, newspaper, and online media were not necessary for both personal and professional development. It means that media had negative influences on my life. To isolate me from the class, a group of students trolled me on Facebook with negative language and comparison. Everything accumulated at the same time, which made me want to suicide. I hate it. With bad memories with media, I used to hate it so much. I do not understand why people acted like that; why didn’t they open to something new. 

However, the media did save my life. For the first time, there was a friend came to me and asked whether I wanted to become a designer. Of course, I love to draw, and I was desperate about my surrounding, so I accepted. It was the very first time, I recognized that media did help the world; people are actually working with it to solve the problems which I experienced. For the first time after a while, I enjoy using Facebook to raise awareness about self-love, self-protection, and so on. And through my role, I could deliver several stories and perspectives that contributed toward that community. Furthermore, I also realised that media can be shaped by the users, positive or negative content does not depend on the providers nor the surrounding community. That is the reason why I love media, and I want to continue with it. 

I understand that we live in media, and media just exaggerates harmful activities. There are several cases even worse than mine. Therefore I want to do something, learn something which I can have a deeper understanding about media. And from that, I can minimize the drawback of media and improve the user behaviors.

From 13535137 – Irene Bui

Media offer so much more than we see on the surface.

They allow us to communicate and relate to one another and build compassion for realities different to ours. Furthermore enable us to read, hear or see real peoples stories – even from across the globe. What a beautiful thought in itself. Media can make us laugh or cry, happy or sad and sometimes all of the above – creating an inherently human experience. And with those shared, universal experiences and feelings, we connect and relate, not just to the people around us but distinct parts of our realities.

Media allow all of this to happen on a broad global spectrum. 

I love my media because I believe it to be a literal mediator: sometimes blurring sometimes sharpening the differences in everyones lives. 

Ella Streefkerk; Student ID: 13900277

For me Social media is pretty awesome. 

It introduces me to new music, inspires me with recipes, connects me to people I love and care about. 

Sharing my experiences on Instagram, staying in touch with people I have not seen for a very long period of time on Snapchat or what’s app, getting entertained with funny videos on TikTok all this makes me feel comfortable. Media let me feel comfortable. 

The possibility to Face-time with friends or my family is such an important function to me. 

Moving to a new city without knowing anyone  is not an unchallenging step but the opportunity to talk via video with people I need around me keeps me feeling safe, connected and comfortable. To actually see them speaking and also to see their surrounding is incredible. 

Particularly through this course, Media and Culture, I perceive media in a more valuable way. There is so much to learn,experience and find out about this broad  media world and I am super excited. 

13853783 student ID – LISA KORBER

When I’m thinking of media, the first emotion that comes to my mind is I love it. I mean, I spend several hours a day on multiple social media platforms, own many different devices, love to watch a series/movie on Netflix in the evening to relax! So I definitely love it… right?

Well, partially, for the most part even! But for me, media can also have its dark sides.

But let’s start with the good ones! As already mentioned, I spend a lot of time on social media, especially Instagram. I can keep in touch with my friends, stay updated about my favourite celebrities and get inspired by other people that share content of the things I’m passionate about. I would say that my life definitely wouldn’t be the same today without social media. I met my best friends on there, connected with people all around the world thanks to a very intimate fan base that I became a part of, which now even gave me the chance to become an ambassador for my favourite DJ! This all wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t started an Instagram account where I share my enthusiasm about my favourite DJ. I would even go so far as to say that this account has made me the person I am today. A huge part of my life consists of media (usage) and I am totally fine with that. To me, it rather feels like an enrichment than something I should be worried about.

On the other hand, I also need to say that especially social media does have its dark sides. Since my pre-teens, I felt very insecure with the way I look. And I still do. When I was about 12, I used to compare myself to celebrities that were pictured in the magazines I read. But social media has brought this potential of comparison to a whole new level. Millions of other people that I can compare to and the line of real and fake is rather blurry. As a person who tends to overthink quite easily, I can say that I often find myself doubting myself even more easily than I already would in real life. It is easy to get lost in beauty standards or idealized accomplishments that are presented online. So even though I really do love my media and all the beautiful things in life that I’ve gained through it, sometimes I just get frustrated and confused. And sometimes I’m even at the point where I want to delete all my social media accounts and never want to touch my phone again. So I think I can say, that for me, how to handle media and when to draw boundaries for myself is a constant process of learning. But despite all this, I am grateful that I have the privilege to freely use and express myself through all kinds of media.

ID: 13840819

Growing up a neurodivergent girl in a broken home situated between fields and forests and marshland, childhood wasn’t exactly fun. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the village I grew up in started falling apart. Now, I’m not trying to say that I’m not happy my home country gained independence (back) when that happened, but with that, the booming agriculture in villages like mine died. As time passed, jobs had to be found elsewhere. Of course, at the time I had no knowledge of this all, but children are not dumb. The looming hopelessness and lack of ambition in the air in these villages like mine was never for me, and I’ve known this since the very beginning.

Now as you know a bit about the background of my situation, you can hopefully understand my options were limited. I was an exceptionally bright kid in a school that didn’t notice my talents or notice my depression that was growing deeper and deeper as I felt misunderstood and disengaged. Bullying started in the first grade, and never really stopped. By the end of ninth grade, I had changed schools due to bullying (spoiler alert: it didn’t help), tried to end my life and been diagnosed with severe depression and insomnia. Now, this is not a sob story and I’m not looking for people to feel sorry for me. We all come from different realities and backgrounds and mine has made me exceptionally vigilant, determined, compassionate and ambitious. But how does media fit into all of this?

Media was my escape. Media was my hope.

I started reading at a very early age and by the time I started school, I was devouring books. All thanks to my mom, who said that she can’t be bothered to read to me when I know how to read myself, and whose living room walls are covered with bookshelves from top to bottom. It helped that there was a library in plain sight from our windows, the remnant of a school that once, before families left to cities in pursuit of career opportunities, existed in the village. So day by day went by and I spent every free moment I had, sitting in an old armchair under the window and reading. Exploring worlds and meeting creatures and living a life through literature far more exiting than the one I faced in reality.

Then came the internet. Our first computer was huge, noisy, and turned on for a good half an hour. This introduced me to an even bigger world of opportunities than books did. My brother reluctantly taught me how to torrent, and off I was to a vast world of media to engage in. At first I was mostly interested in the games, soon discovered movies, series, anime and manga. This all gave me even more opportunities to escape the cruel and mundane world my physical body was, for some reason, placed in, and introduced me to hope that even from the direst, darkest places, I could grow and seek greatness.

Then came social media. And even though I faced a lot of the bullying taking place on social media platforms, I also found a whole community of people that were like me. That felt lost, and like nobody understood them, and that faced similar struggles. For the first time in my life, I had likeminded people I could communicate with. For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel utterly and devastatingly alone. And only through this, I started seeing the world differently. Only through this I understood, that suicide was far not the only option. And with this I found a place for myself in the world, found opportunities to help the people who were in the same, seemingly hopeless situations I had been in.

So by the time high school started, I moved across country to start over in a boarding school. I found hope, and belonging, and a sense of home in myself. I kept fighting and pushing against the odds over and over again, because after all, I knew I’d done it before and prevailed.

How could I not love my media, when living a life in media has given me all of these experiences, opportunities, and growth. And new chance at life, really.

Ingel

I grew fond of media, I was obsessed with technology, from video consoles to phones and now cameras. When I was a kid, I was inquisitive and to me, nothing was more complex and fascinating to explore than media. It gave me purpose at times when I was lost and told me to seek help when I felt like I needed it. My imagination and sense of creativity expanded, and my knowledge in topics like arts, philosophy, and psychology was improved, consequently, in addition to being a subject of media, I became part of it. I started creating media, practicing photography, editing, and painting, thus, changing the course of my life and partially changing myself. As an aspiring artist, media have provided me with all sorts of inspiration, ideas, and the chance for my work to be seen, I feel quite lucky for accessing such a big universe where I was able to learn and grow. Grateful, and happy for having such a privilege, I must admit that although media gave me practically everything, it also destroyed parts of me that I couldn’t recover.

As a media student, I am now more aware of what I am being exposed to; however, my 14-year-old self did not. Instead of learning and growing as a person, I was learning and picking what I should change about my image to fit the standards best; In part, media crammed me with shame and pushed me to become something I am not. In addition to social standards, I was exploring the dark side of media; I honestly mostly blame myself for this part, because I fairly knew what I was exposing myself to. Nevertheless, I used to spend a lot of time reading stories about the most inhumane acts, watching violent and explicit videos that mostly contained terrorist acts and hate crimes. I don’t think I was as aware of how much the content I was consuming affected me as I am now. It made me feel hopeless, and drastically deteriorated my mental health. I regrettably say that I have not been the same ever since.

            So, how do I feel about media?  I suppose I feel ambivalent. I love my media as I stated before, but I am also frustrated by it; It can be helpful and inspirational, yet sometimes overwhelming. I want to add that now I feel better about my media and the way I consume it. It’s safe to say that, learning how to critically evaluate the information and content we are exposed to is a key component to being happy with our media.

If I’m being honest I really do love my media. Personally there’s two main reasons for this: one being the fact that I use my media as a sort of journal for my life. Particularly on instagram I have what would be called my ‘spam account’, a private account that only has my good friends on, essentially i log almost every day of my existence on that account. See a lot of people, including my own Grandma, might consider this sad or in their uninformed dystopian perspective on social media use, problematic and unnecessary. My Grandma as an example, she has on multiple occasions hit me with the “why would you want everyone to know what you’re doing all the time” or “you really want to photograph everything all the time” but for me this journal of my life on instagram where I can see all these amazing memories in one place is sometimes a sort of sanctuary. In context, when I’m having a bad day, or not even having a bad day but just feel like it, I go to this account and I look at all these great memories, photos and videos with my favourite people and can relive them then and there! It really makes you realise how great life is and how many cool things we have the opportunity to do and have done. That sounds slightly naff but it’s a great reminder to appreciate life and the people around you. 

The second reason I love my media is because, as an aspiring film director media is pretty necessary, again using the example of instagram, (WE LOVE IG), I have my film and photography account on there, not only does the platform allow me to be a consumer of media but it also allows me to be a producer. Particularly since moving to Amsterdam I have loved taking photographs of people here in amazing moments and sharing them online there. Instagram has an abundance of interesting and creative accounts where I can gain inspiration and enjoy other peoples work as well.

Bobby Smalley

Media helped this 5 year old kid believe that he could shoot webs and swing from buildings, and taught him that with great power comes great responsibility.

Media showed this 8 year old kid moves from wrestlers to try on his younger brother, but it was his mother who taught him that they should not be replicated, as the poor brother was getting flung around.

Media treasured this 10 year old kid’s memories from his school that he was about to leave on Facebook, and helped him remember all the great years he had at his new home.

Media hosted this 13 year old kid’s video game clips where he recorded himself playing games with his friends, which he later deleted because he was too embarrassed to look at them again.

Media made this 16 year old teenager feel insecure about himself because of his circulated drunken videos. This teenager later quit social media hoping the embarrassment would go away just a little bit.

Media helped this 17 year old teenager build and maintain his relationship with his girlfriend while the world was on fire, the streets were off limits, and communication other than your parents was a taboo. While the world was in chaos, he was still the happiest man alive for 2 hours a day.

Media broke this 19 year olds heart when he and his girlfriend broke up over video call when the restrictions were up again. Media also helped him recover with connections to his other friends and family. For being all alone, he was blessed with support from all over the world.

Media is communicating this soon to be 20 year old man’s experience and life with it to you, the reader, who can hopefully see how blessed you are to have media in your lives. He would never have been the man that he is now without it, so he welcomes it with open arms. Embrace it, live it, but most importantly, ❤ it, as it ❤’s you, and it’s never going away.

ID: 13237411

NO MORE MEDIA DETOX

It has been a while since I stopped trying the “social media detox”, I mean what’s the point to try to avoid media? Why should I deprive myself of such an amazing and interesting experience? The feeling and the fear of missing out something important is definitely not worth the attempt of trying to live a more “natural” life, especially since my main source of information, fun, creativity and connection with my friends back home is, in fact, social media.

As soon as I pushed away the idea of abandoning social media from me, the prospect of embracing them took place instead, and my point of view changed radically. Yes, I get distracted a lot, especially while studying and yes, I might have taken the wrong train a couple of times while watching Tiktoks or calling my boyfriend, but this is definitely my fault, not media’s.

Now, focusing on the content I watch and follow online, I can recognize how my person evolved and is still evolving thanks to the numerous activists I follow and to the wide number of information I’m able to obtain, therefore I wouldn’t be able to take a step back and limit myself to watch the national newscast or to read those old fashioned newspapers.

Last but not least, media are a source of endless fun: how many times did I cry over a fun tiktok? Quite a lot actually. And how many times I cried over puppies/ kittens/ babies videos? Again – plenty of times. I’m still asking myself how that crazy platform is still free.

Sofia Bovo – 13921800

Starting this blog on why I love my media, I think it is important to clarify that I don’t. Depending on how you want to define love. Wikipedia defines love as an “Intense feeling of deep affection”, which really doesn’t quite capture my feelings towards media. I have developed a dependency upon media, and thus, I would rather describe it as a love-hate relationship, similar to one a drug addict has to his drug. I love my media because of the many comfortable benefits I gain from them, but I hate the fact that I seem to have no control over how much I use my media. Going into all the different media I use would take up too much space, so I’d like to demonstrate my media use through one specific example, my relationship with music.

I use the App “Spotify” to listen to music. What I love about Spotify is how easily it enables me to access music. I often imagine a time before radio, before iPods and before Spotify, in which music wasn’t something that accompanied people on their way to work or to their home. Music wasn’t just music, it was an event, a place where people would gather to listen to a group of people playing music. It would almost represent this sort of escape from everyday life that had to be experienced live.

Music today is unlimited. It is mind-boggling to think that today almost all of music is somehow stored in a cloud and without the presence of any musicians, I can just pop two little devices in my ears, and enjoy music no matter where I am, if it’s on a walk, at a Café or on the toilet even, and no matter what time it is, in the morning, in my lunch break or before I fall asleep. Also, there are no restrictions in what kind of music I would like to listen to. I can listen to an Erroll Garner Record that was recorded in a Chicago Jazz club in the 1950s, I can listen to Latin Music from the 1980s or I can choose from any artists today, and in that way I can somewhat, based on my own personal taste, choose what kind of reality I want to live in, by choosing the musical theme of my own life.

However, this also comes with its own drawbacks. I often wonder if this unlimited access to all of music is the reason why I never felt particularly compelled to make music myself. Because why make music myself when I can already listen to anything I want at any time I want? Not only that but the music will always sound perfect, cause it has almost always been recorded in a studio, where all the sounds were synched up, edited and packaged into this perfect entity. Whereas if I picked up an instrument myself, I would have to make the painful realization, that it doesn’t always sound perfect. And maybe, it shouldn’t.

Another worry I have is that since the access is unlimited, I also use it maybe more than I should. I once had a very frightening experience, where I and a couple of friends smoked some Marijuana, which turned out to be very strong. The effect of the drug threw me in this state of mind, where I continually over assessed not only my whole life but my demeanor in that moment, and I couldn’t control my thinking branching out into more and more anxious and questioning thoughts. It was a terrifying loss of my grip on reality. Whatever my head was coming up with, I did not want to see it. So in an act of desperation, I had this idea to play some music, more specifically I played “Breathe” by Pink Floyd. And I remember just suddenly feeling safe inside that melody. I closed my eyes and almost let the music drain out my thoughts and I focused to simply let my body go with the melody. The music let me escape from my own thoughts. Now, I am mostly sober though, and usually my thoughts do not immediately run to insecurities and fears, but I still listen to music on almost every opportunity that I can. Hell, I am even listening to music while I’m writing this blog. And I’m frightened, not of my own thoughts but that I might be doing the same thing I did while I was under the effect of Marijuana. Am I just innocently listening to music or am I washing away my own thoughts, my own daydreams, my own ideas?

So that’s my concern. I worry that the ubiquity of, not only Spotify, but all media might deprive me of my ability to just be with myself, to be with silence and let my thoughts linger and unfold. After all, who am I if I am never alone?

Georges Degoumois, 13257676