Why I Heart My Media

Media has been my closest friend growing up. Media has also been, and still is, my favorite toy to play when I am bored or in the look out for something new. Reflecting up to this point in my life, and knowing I have been operated by some machine even before it was a “thing” is extremely bothering. Yet, I cannot thank media enough for always being there when I really needed a hand to hold. Because of media, I was able to stay in touch with all of my mutual friends and family who lived apart from me, I was able to translate words I did not know in English, I was able to google how to pluck my eyebrows without crying, and even, how to cook pasta like Gigi Hadid. The definition of media varies person to person; to me, I view media as a tool that supports our learning and our transportation to finding anything we want or need. Even so, I would disagree if that is how we should be living our lives today.

For me, I love media because I learn so much, I get inspired to be motivated and successful as others, I can talk with people across the world, and I can post photos whenever I want to without a reason. Contrary, I unlove media because of the degree it pushes everyone back from enjoying the little things that life brings outside a screen or entertainment created by others.

My story with media began since I grew up as I was surrounded by many alienated-shaped machines because of my dad’s work, I attained an attraction towards an item that virtually cherished a part of me. Thus, I still have a strong neglecting towards it because I suffered from being a normal kid as I entered the media world too early which harmed me mentally, but matured me rapidly. I say this confidently because I spent an enormous part of my life alone and being too afraid of interacting with people, I relied hugely on media to find who I wanted to be, how I should think, and how I wanted people to perceive me as. I can still remember feeling isolated having to be like the others, but then I realized what I began to like and dislike.

Now being older, I would scold my 10 year old self for failing at such simple task in life, but I would not say I regret it as I was able to understand simple things clearer than people my age. Nevertheless, seeing my five year old brother attempting to be a Youtuber or Tiktoker frustrates me because of all of the opportunities he will abandon such as scarring his knees from playing too much, or crying for hours because he can no longer be playing at the park by being too devoted to media. 

My point is that regardless of what our generation has normalized as the perfect life, media is almost inevitable to use at this point. There are many reasons why I could rant over why media shapes us in a particular way and pushes us from living a life without media. Of course I hate it to an extent, but I also love it because without it, I would not understand what some things are and I would not be the person I am today. In addition, as a university student all alone in a country I never thought I be in, media supports me in ways that help me stay afloat and keep me motivated.

So, to media, thank you.

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Since Media is everywhere, always present wherever I go, since I was born, how can I not love it? That’s the question I ask myself when I talk about Media. It is the thing that shapes me and probably the majority of people’s lives. I can talk about hoWe constantly reference things in conversations, we are influenced by characters we see on screen or read in books. We continuously consume and consume for the thrills or for emotions, for comfort. So how can I not love my media when it literally shapes my life and personality… without it I wouldn’t be me. So there’s this Stockholm Syndrome style situation where I have to love the media because not only does it constantly bombard me, it literally makes me. 

I rely on it to make and plan stuff with friends, to talk to family, to look for cooking recipes, to waste time. It is essential to my life and nothing showed that more than the October 4th outage, where my primary media for communications were down. My plans to coordinate work or contact my family were delayed for 6 hours, a miniscule problem compared to a business who literally relies on Facebook, yet an app completely changed my plans for the day. So media both molds me but it also commands me, so why should I not love it if it makes my life easier. Yet I do have genuine love for the media I consume, especially Art such as Film, is something I absolutely adore, I can’t go a day without bringing up movies in my thoughts or conversations. The famous critic Roger Ebert once described movies as “…a machine that generates empathy.” and that’s precisely why I love them. Films allow me to see different perspectives of our world and sometimes allow me to escape in order to see the life of someone else. Like most Media it is escapism but it can be so much more and that’s what I love about it.

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Growing up my parents never really allowed me to interact with the media. I was always making up imaginary storylines and playing with my friends. My parents would take me and my sister camping, hiking, and put us in every sport imaginable. The only form of digital media I had was a DS (I love my DS and still use it today) which I could only use on long plane/car rides or at my sister’s gymnastics meets. This never bothered me though. I was a crazy energetic girl who just wanted to dance and run around. I had no time to sit and stare at a screen… But then I entered middle school and got my first phone and digital media entered my life.

Media has been so useful and amazing in my life. The first reason why I love the media is because I love food. I use my phone everyday to look up recipes and my love for baking was heavily influenced by Food Network/YouTube. My endless scrolling through baking tutorials and online blogs has helped me develop new skills and has helped create some of the most mouthwatering desserts. Not only has media inspired me in the kitchen, but media has also enabled me to learn so much more about the world and other cultures and I am so thankful for that. I grew up in a tiny town which was pretty conservative. With the use of my phone/media I was able to branch out of my tiny town and explore other places. I was also able to find communities online that were way more accepting then the people I was surrounded by in my town. Along with learning about other places and finding new communities, I was able to use my media to meet so many new friends. For example before coming here to Amsterdam, I used my media to reach out to people and make friends who were also coming to Amsterdam. This made my journey here so much less stressful knowing I would have friends here already and it made me excited to come and meet my friends in real life. Digital media also allows me to stay in contact with family. My sister is in Hungary, my parents in America, I am in Amsterdam, and the rest of my family are scattered everywhere in between. With the use of FaceTime we never feel too far away. I mean it is not the same as seeing each other in person, it is still so amazing to be able to see my parents from across the globe. So I guess what I am trying to say is that I love media and I am so happy it is in my life.

-Alexa Baksay (13752847)

Some people often tell me I take too many pictures, I shoot too many videos even in the most mundane moments, that I should just enjoy the moment without my camera or my phone. Obviously, these people aren’t my best friends because they can’t understand one of my biggest passions. 

Photographing is a form of art for me and most importantly a way to remember.

I take many pictures because I’m too scared of forgetting, of not remembering the beautiful places and little things I see, the amazing people I met and how lucky I was to be able to see that beauty. But it’s not only about beauty, I love to take pictures of everything that makes me feel something, that gives me positive but also negative vibes, or even both. 

Scrolling my photo gallery or Instagram travel accounts when I’m nostalgic, sad, demotivated is so helpful to me. It helps me to not forget how beautiful, intense, powerful life is. 

Moreover, having all these photos on my phone makes me feel like I have memories and places with me all the time, I can always look back and appreciate moments in a less blurred way than I would do without these technologies. 

I’m not jealous of my memories so I do also love to share them on social media, to show other’s what is beauty to me and what I like doing. Furthermore, I love when Instagram or Facebook remember me what I was doing the year before the same day, or even two, three, five years before, it’s like someone showing me how much I changed and grown. 

Sometimes I get lost in media because I find so much inspiration, beauty, places I want to visit, advice so I can never have enough and it’s very difficult to put my phone down. But I’m working on this aspect, to maintain a healthy relationship with media without losing myself in them and to live my present fully. 

I love to share on social media, more than just to watch what others are doing. If I don’t have a lot of time, instead of looking at all the stories and posts, I prefer to post or share some moments myself, rather than just passively look at what others are sharing, it just feels more productive.

Finally, I love media because they allow me to keep in touch with people I love and miss. Even if seeing someone in person is always the best option, video calling and texting with people I can’t see often anymore because I moved away to study, is still a good option. 

I think I would have lost a lot of friends if media didn’t exist, not because our friendship isn’t strong enough but because I would not be part of their lives as I can be now thanks to media, even if I live 1100km away from them.

Gaia Marchioni

If I’m being honest here, I expected to procrastinate until the last minute to write this text and was somehow pleasantly surprised with what happened on October 4^th, 2021, aka the day I’m writing this.

Facebook and its family of apps were out of service for several hours during this cold and boring Monday and this event was just another proof of how dependent on media we became. As soon as both the apps and the websites crashed pretty much all media users, I included, started migrating to other platforms to communicate with one another just to realize it was not their poor Wi-Fi router blame that Zuckerberg networks stopped giving us several new content within every 30 seconds.

This event, that would be practicably impossible to explain to someone born before 1930, was responsible for almost a 10% increase on the worldwide search for the term “WhatsApp” on Google in less than one hour, according to Google Trends. This fact alone already shows in a pretty explicit way how people reacted to this “media crash”, but if more evidence is needed just open twitter and search for the hashtag #InternetShutdown, the memes are really funny so I would personally recommend.

This whole situation gave me time to focus on my studies and I started reflecting on my relationship with media. Being an average teenager, I constantly use media and confess that even thought I promise myself I will spend less time on my phone every Monday after I get THAT notification from Settings on my Screen Time, the cycle repeats itself every week. Besides that, by being an international student, I spend at least two hours a day just talking to my family and friends via absolutely all platforms we can.

As obvious as it is when I saw nothing was working and had the exact same realization as millions that it was not a Wi-Fi problem, my first thought was: “When and how will I be able to talk to them again?”. However, this was followed by the insensitive thought that I would finally get some rest from all notifications and guilt trip of not wanting to call my mom or reply to the 20th TikTok video my best friend sent me in the meantime of one and a half hour.

I am of course grateful that I do not need to wait weeks to hear back from people living in Brazil and I absolutely love scrolling through Instagram for hours, even knowing all the disadvantages of doing so, but at the same time a break from this side of media felt great. I continued using media for the hours those networks were still inactive, but just the fact that I was not writing an e-mail while answering my dad about how to buy something off of amazon and shedding a tear while listening to Taylor Swift was already a great start to get some rest.

Opening twitter and seeing people mad at Zuckerberg and at the same time freaking out because they use these platforms to work generates a weird feeling, to say the least, building perspective once again to how much of an influence media has on all of us.

Coincidentally, as I finish writing this text at around midnight thirty, I just got a notification from a group chat on WhatsApp, meaning all other platforms are probably functioning normally again. I guess we will not need to do all greetings and have one more reason to feel like Truman that soon after all.

Olivia Helena Lucchesi

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In the 21st century, media became an essential part of our life. What we think and how we behave are significantly influenced by media. Nowadays, people are not only consuming but also producing media contents in many different forms. It also connects people, no matter how far you live, and plays an integral part of communication in a global scale. As a person who is quite active on multiple media platforms, I think media usage has positive impacts in general and I’m happy to have media in my life.

Even though it is a virtual space, the sense of belonging in media satisfies the desire for self-actualization. The more interaction takes place, the greater satisfaction I get. In the times of Covid, I became more active than ever in social media and I used multiple platforms to join communities and share my own creations. People I met there and their engagements were great source of energy for me at that time. Since the account started to grow fast and gain popularity, I was asked to get sponsored by some brands. It was an amazing experience to cooperate with companies using my talent to influence the world. Sometimes it even feels like the particular persona I create in social media represents the real me beyond the virtual space and makes me feel more confident than in real space. It also seems like people tend to have positive perception on me when I introduce them with my account; halo effect. Thus, I’m becoming more and more addicted to this comfort zone.

I’ve been in long distance relationship going for almost 3 years and technology has enabled us to successfully maintain it. If you wonder what it is like to be in LDR in today’s media saturated society, it isn’t that hard as you may expect but something different. We were able to overcome the distance and the different time zone easily through media. Instead of seeing each other physically, video calling allowed us to establish some degree of emotional communication and share deeper feeling and thoughts than other couples. We often spent time together on playing online games and watching movies and these kind of little events let us realize the value of our relationship as well as greater appreciation on every moments. Also, there are numerous amount of posts under hashtag #couplestagram in Instagram as a tool to feel more connected with their partner and protect the relationship from other people, and we had our own private account too. Through the endless contents and various platforms that media provides, couples in long distance relationship can build a strong intimacy and eventually it becomes a new form of love today.

Media is ubiquitous and it is almost impossible to imagine the world without media. I consume media all the time as I want to stay connected with my family, friends and partner and to get inspired by seeing others creation:pictures, musics and videos. I also produce contents to entertain others and to achieve self-actualization. Personally, I can’t guarantee that media is beneficial for us in every aspect but if there is no media in our life, it will be difficult for a lot of people to maintain careers and relationships.

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Do I love my media? Or do I hate it? I don’t even know it myself. It’s super hard to tell. I feel that media is like a family member, who you live with, and you love them but sometimes they can get on your nerves and you can get super angry.
As unbelievable as it sounds, media helped me to find who I am. I’ve seen, heard and read so many things that helped my growing and all of them was because of media. On one hand a part of me is happy to have media in my life, on the other hand I hate is sometimes. If I really want to study but I get a notification, I start checking my phone way too often and I can end up scrolling through my feed, which provides me information that I am interested in. So it’s super hard to put my phone down and do something else. In conclusion I could never tell if I loved media or not. But I am definetly grateful that I have it present in my life (even if I sometimes hate it). 13555405 Barbara Isabelle Nagy

The last thing my mother told me before I left for my flight to Amsterdam was, “I will facetime you everyday. So we can keep in touch”. It got me thinking about how heavily dependent we are on media to keep in contact with our loved ones. The possibility of connecting with anyone at anytime by just a click of a button.

I have been in countless situations where media in general has made me avoid an on the spot breakdown literally. For example, one afternoon I was craving Indian food but I was not that great at cooking. Immediately I called my mother and asked her to guide me. It tasted great just to let you all know.

It amazes me how various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook or even WhatsApp make it easier to stay in contact between people who live far apart. Just because you are away form them does not mean that you are are not part of their life. Media might not not be able to grant you physical access to that person but it can still give you the experience of feeling connected. Just by sending a “snap” on Snapchat or Instagram, your close ones are updated on your daily doings or the exciting new things that you tried or stumbled across.

All I am saying is that we have progressed so much in the field of media and it has continuously helped us connect. Especially students who are away from home, or family members that you cannot visit due to the pandemic.

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I will forever be thankful for Media.

Being an international student I am dealing with a lot of difficulties and challenges and since I’ve moved to Amsterdam my mind has been overwhelmed by new feelings, such as homesickness. To be honest I would never expect myself to be homesick because I’ve always thought about my home town as the worst place where to live, but right now I can only think about the feeling of comfort and protection of it. Whenever I feel at my lowest I pick up my phone and I call or face time my family or my best friend and all the loneliness and sadness fade away; all of this thanks to Media as Face time, Skype and Whatsapp. In addition, I’ve also created my own comfort zone regarding my Media. While scrolling through my Pinterest page I feel a sense of home and peace created from all the aesthetically pleasing pictures that the algorithm choose for me. Even watching a certain tv show or movie on Netflix (or any streaming platform) can change my whole day from a grey and sad one to a sunny one 🙂

At the end of the day, it will always be me, myself and Media but I heart it because Media is where I feel at home ❤

Sofia, 13932314

I am going to be completely honest with you, this is the fifth time I have tried writing this blog post. Trying to rack my brain to come up with some philosophical answer as to why I’m such a media addict. It’s weird, right? How an assortment of pixels can have such a chokehold on you. 

But, since the “me” writing this right now doesn’t have the answer to that question (yet), let us rack my brain together. 

To clarify, I am a complete social media addict, the first thing I do when I wake up is check my phone and before I go to bed I entertain myself by scrolling through (what seems) an endless For-you page on Tik Tok. When I don’t know what to wear, I open Pinterest and look through the 20+ inspiration boards I have made. If I’m bored, I open YouTube to fall into yet another rabbit hole of conspiracy videos. It’s a sort of codependency in a way, after all, if you were to take away my phone and all my other ways to access these resources (which are surprisingly quite a lot), It would take me at least a good three days to get adjusted. That does not seem like that long, however, the aforementioned things are to be completely honest with you, quite mundane tasks.  

And I can already hear you thinking: ”that doesn’t sound like a reason to love media”. This can be the case for some people, but for me, it’s the exact opposite. 

I love waking up and seeing what my friends have been up to, reading their replies to my stories or seeing what TikToks/memes they have sent me. I love the fact that before I go to bed I can watch an endless stream of funny videos and laugh even harder at the comments people have left behind. I love that I can open an app to get some inspiration for the outfit I am going to wear that day. I love theorizing about the most ridiculous things for hours, going on Google in full research mode to find out if the earth is actually round (I’m kidding about that of course). 

So you know what. Yes, I am 100% codependent on all my favourite media sources, but what’s so bad about that? For some people that can be a reason why they dislike (social) media, but for me, it’s the exact reason why I heart Media.

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