Why I Heart My Media

Lysian Schenk s13996908

Als ik iets zeker heb geleerd de afgelopen werken, is het dat media tegenwoordig overal zit en we het allemaal niet meer door hebben. In de lectuures van Mark Deuze is dit meerder malen naar voren gekomen en heeft mij zeker geprikkeld. Van jongs af aan ben ik al bezig met het maken van filmpjes/fotos/muziekvideos en sta ik het liefst voor de camera. Ik vind het geweldig om kunst te maken door gebruik te maken van video en dit vervolgens te promoten op een ander platform. Dit zijn de kanten waarin in media geweldig vind. Je bent vrij om creatieve keuzes te maken en je creëert altijd iets unieks no matter what. Tegenwoordig gaat het vaak over sociale media. Wat logisch is omdat het voor vele van ons een onderdeel is van je dag. Sociale media is een super breed begrip en een groot deel er van vind ik interessant en nuttig. Echter is er ook een deel wat mij minder blij maakt. De sociale druk onder mensen wordt zo enorm vergoot en dat heeft naar mijn mening een slechte invloed op de wereld. Ik vind dat we sociale media op andere manieren veel beter kunnen gebruiken. Daarin staan communicatie, onderwijs en creativiteit centraal. Het bekritiseren van anderen en maken van nutteloze tiktoks zit echt in mijn allergie. En ik vind dat dit moet veranderen. Sinds ik Media studeer ben ik achter veel dingen gekomen die ik nog nooit van dat oogpunt had bekeken. Bijvoorbeeld hoe het zit met de rechten van seksrobots en dat er al zulke geavanceerde trackings systemen zijn dat eigenlijk geen enkel wachtwoord meer een geheim is. Ik ben mega enthousiast en nieuwsgierig om de andere kanten van Media te gaan bestuderen en hopelijk ooit mijn visie delen met anderen. Media is nou eenmaal een onderdeel van ons leven en dat gaat ook zeker niet verdwijnen.  Momenteel ben ik echt mega ziek dus ik weet echt niet of deze kleine blog enige duidelijkheid geeft over hoe ik naar media kijk, maar dit is mijn visie in het kort. Liefs lysssss

When I reflect upon my relationship with media, I find that film is the form I enjoy the most. I appreciate film as a medium, both in terms of consumption and creation. The main reason I enjoy it so much is because it challenges me to be creative and come up with ways to communicate the ideas and stories I want to share with the world through both the possibilities and the restrictions the medium comes with.

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De mens bestaat al een hele tijd, als we over de moderne mens praten (Australopithecus anamensis) kunnen we ervan uitgaan dat wij al vier miljoen jaar over de aardbol slenteren. Het was een stuk moeilijker om als mens zijnde te overleven dan nu, toch zijn dezelfde dingen nog steeds van cruciaal belang om goed te kunnen functioneren. Water, eten en zuurstof, eigenlijk zijn deze drie dingen altijd wel zo gebleven maar je kan zeggen dat voor iedereen die nu in een moderne samenleving woont er in ieder geval één belangrijk iets is bij gekomen: Media.

Als persoon kan ik niet meer zonder media, natuurlijk zijn er dingen in de media die mij niet aanspreken en waar ik geen seconden naar omkijk. De een vindt dit leuk en de ander dat, maar media in het algemeen is iets waar vele van ons niet meer zonder kunnen leven. Tiktok, het NOS-journaal, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, bellen, de krant en ga zo maar door. Al deze mogelijkheden om geprikkeld te worden zijn een vorm van leven geworden. Het is belangrijk voor mij om op de hoogte te blijven over mijn favorieten beroemdheden, of wat er in de wereld speelt. Deze nog altijd groeiende markt zal voor de komende tientallen jaren een plek in mijn hersenen hebben met de omschrijving ”onmisbaar”.

Het is naar mijn mening iets goeds dat dit in mijn/ons leven is gekomen, al deze informatie die je anders zou moeten missen, het gemak dat je kan afspreken met vrienden/collega’s of het plezier dat je ervaart wanneer je beste vriend een meme naar je stuurt, dit zijn allemaal factoren waardoor ik media (bijna) zal zien als mijn Zuurstof.

Freek Baars 14004186

It’s currently 18:19 as I’m writing this blogpost. My mother just came home from work and my dog is laying here by my side. It’s a cold Thursday evening so I have made myself a nice, and very warm, cup of tea. A good cup of Chai tea never fails to brighten my day! I’m wearing my pink headphones and I’m listening to ‘Can’t help falling in love’ by Elvis Presley. It’s a lovely evening.

So, dear stranger, who is reading this blogpost at this very moment. Now you know what a Dutch nineteen year old girl was doing on a cold Thursday evening at 18:19. I know that this is probably useless information to you but just take a moment to realize how cool it is that you now know what I was doing on a Thursday evening. That it is possible that from where ever you are on this planet, you can know what I was doing without even seeing me, knowing me and talking to me. Isn’t that wonderful? You might be in Canada, eating in the kitchen while reading this. You might be in Germany, waiting for your bus to arrive while reading this. You might be in your room, at a party, on the toilet (we all sit on our phones, let’s be honest:)) while reading this. I think it’s amazing how easy it is to talk and listen to the entire world, while not setting a foot outside. If someone, two or three hundred years ago, was able to talk to someone on the other side of the world, people would think of it as witchcraft, the work of god, a miracle. And you know what? It really is. Even if using media has become a daily habit to us, to me, to almost every person living in 2021, I really do think media is quite miraculous.

Of course, not every part of media is positive and fun. I’m well aware of all the negative stuff that media brings into all of our lives. The pressure to always be online, the way media can keep us from going outside, the hate people can spread so easily without any consequences. There is so much to media that I don’t like. But I wouldn’t want to live in a world without media. To me, media brings me more positivity than negativity. To me, media will always be a miraculous thing which enables to do so many things I would never be able to do in a world without media. Media is far from perfect. But it will be always a beautiful thing to me…

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Street lights flickered as bustles of traffic hauled past, silence slowly blanketed the buildings, and through a small crack in a window of one house, strands of light dazzled through. A figure twirled around to reveal the face of a little girl covered in happiness, reflecting that feeling to the people around her. Her ideas, thoughts, and opinions, were as loud as her imagination. The girl began to realise that through all the 7 continents, 195 countries, and 10,000 cities, all accommodating over 7 billion people, she held a small place in this world even with her enormous imagination. Her mind spiraled with confusion as she tried to understand the world: it’s people, places, cultures and values. Through the years her confusion turned into curiosity as she began to discover the unifying power of media, she realised that she could uncover the secrets of the world through a lighted screen in her living room.

Being this girl and appreciating this perspective helped me realise that in this fast moving, resilient world, I will always have media. It’s impossible to think these little devices that follow us around all day, that we turn to each second for every detail has exposed us to all we love, hate, and know about our world today.

But there is still so much more for me to learn, I want to be able to understand this vivid universe, all its diverse cultures, rich countries, inspiring people, and immense values.  And I know that the only way for me to do this, for me to find myself, while finding out about everything and everyone around me, is through the media that ripples through all aspects of my life. So, I thank media, I thank media for giving me a key to this universe, for being the link between me and everything else that stands in my way, for allowing me to learn, grow, relearn and grow some more.

Shanaya Chawla

Student ID: 13680846

Social media has always been a big part of my identity and for me a freedom of expression without having to fear someone’s judgement. Growing up in a small country, there is not much diversity in it- government promotes racism, homophobia and the population of people of colour is basically non-existent. As a teenager social media helped me gain self-confidence in myself, be woke about circumstances that take place in other countries and learn more about other cultures. On top of that, social media has given a voice to people who it was taken away from due to not having the right financial status and helped with the job marketing. So, when people tend to downside social media, it makes me irritated because usually the reason for their accusation is that it is unhealthy. Although, Apple has developed many softwares in order for people to lower their usage on certain apps and phone in general, even applications like Instagram have given us the ability to choose who we follow, therefore it makes people’s assertions irrelevant and supports the claim that it is up to us how we choose to manage our time and focus.

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The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is to check my phone,

dozens and hundreds unread messages flooding in,

comments and DMs, notification from various Apps,

replying to all, checking all,

I lay in bed on my back and stare at the ceiling,

thinking,

what is life?

and why my life seems to be so tied up to this tiny screen,

made up with electronic pulses of 0 and 1.

Then I turn on my phone again,

texting my friends, asking when they want to hang out.

Then open up Spotify and listen to my favourite playlist.

And start my new day with it.

I enjoyed this,

indulging myself with such rich amount of information and convenience.

But sometimes I worry about this as well,

Indulging myself in the digital world too much,

I got social media anxiety graduately,

I started to care about others’ opinion too much,

having eating disorder and being insecured,

but also thanks to social media,

I started to see positive blogs and videos,

which encourage us to embrace ourselves,

and our imperfections.

I started to feel comfortable about myself again,

and got the smile on my face back again.

Right now I have a balanced relationship with media,

and I am happy about it,

it gives me woe sometimes,

but it gives me joy more!

Student number: 13016237

I’m very emotionally unavailable and I rarely let anyone in, but somehow, my phone found a way to do that. When I think about it, my phone has access to all my data and photos. Basically, everything that I would never let someone see, read, or hear. It has access to recordings of my catastrophic attempts to sing, cringe conversations that I had with random people that led nowhere, and thoughts that I write down when I’m drunk or high at night and either not feeling well or feeling philosophical. Maybe the reason why I’m so comfortable letting my phone see my most vulnerable side is because I feel safe knowing that it won’t judge who I am, doesn’t have any hidden intentions, and I know for a fact that it won’t stab my back. And other than that, my phone is the number one thing that I use every single day. It’s always there for me, always knows what’s best for me, or at least tries to, and is everything that I need. After all, maybe I don’t really need to look for someone because I may have found the one.

Student ID: 13964593

If you are going to ask me if I love media, honestly I don’t know how to answer that. Media and I are in a complicated relationship. The first time I met media was a long time ago which I don’t even remember clearly, however, I do know that i was fascinated by it. A whole new world opened for me. I think it was the TV, it had more than 100 different things to watch, which shocked me because at that time I couldn’t even count to a hundred. Anyway since then, media has been a part of my every day life. Maybe im not in love with media and maybe I am in love media. Like I said it is very complicated.

Eventually I grew up before I realised it but it was not only me who grew up, Media changed alongside of me. I do love media because it has an endless unexplored side to it and will continue to grow. I do not love media because it will become a stranger to me because it will outgrow me, eventually when I will be at an age where I can’t keep up with it anymore and that scares me. Like I said it is complicated. Media eventually integrated in my life which I didn’t even notice. It is part of my every day life and even now, I cannot imagine living without it.

Alright, this story has already been too long, so I will end it here. But my question to you is, why do you love media?

student number; 13006126