Why I Heart My Media

There are several reasons why I love media. First of all, media as practices, is what we do in a daily base. Even though we think we can be excluded from media to a certain extent, we cannot live without it because it is ubiquitous. For example, the first thing I do every morning  when I open my eyes is to grab my phone and check if anyone message me. Media is something that enhances connections between different people. It also expands my view to a large extent. I learnt international news on media and having more understanding about those issues such as Brexit. Additionally, when I didn’t understand some theory of science teachers explained in class, I would just search it up afterwards. Most importantly, media has shortened our physical distance. As a Chinese student who study in a country that is far away from my home, it is really vital for me to communicate with my friends and family back in China, and media make this happen. I am able to use Wechat( a Chinese version of Whatsapp) to talk to my friends and know about their updates. I can comment on their posts and they can know how life is like in the Netherlands as well. Media not only enable us to receive information but also participating it. By doing so, the bond between friends gets tighten and the relationship between classmates gets closer. It also makes it easier for us to  know more about someone from their social media account. By looking at what they post everyday and how they phrase their words, their personality can be partially revealed.

In conclusion, media provides various conveniences in our life and without it our life will be full of obstacles, and that is why I love media. To be exact, media is what we do .

Qiuting Cai

           “Why I heart my media?”

I’ve been reading all of the blogposts today and yesterday.  And I noticed that I secretly loved it. Some of them are so personal and intimate. People are telling about their loved ones, relationships or simply confessing that they can’t life without media. It surprised me how open people were in order to answer this question. But now I have to answer it myself. While I was reading all those texts I wanted to know who was behind the blogpost so I could ask them things or simply give them a hug. Thinking all of this, I still didn’t know what to do with the question. So, I asked someone special “Do you know how I would answer this?” Later today I got something back saying:

“You told me you wanted to get into media because you wanted to express real life problems to people… you wanted people like me and you to have a greater awareness of our world and the problems we cause… You seemed quite passionate about it, whilst having further ambitions to one day own your own productions. “

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I heart media because it can tell so many stories and you can use it to tell your story. Wherever it’s about yourself or somebody else.

 

– Alessia Chericoni

 

People are very controversial whether the use of media brings a positive or negative effect to people. As a person who is always surrounded by media, it is undeniable that media made us develop more than ever before. In my personal opinion, connection and communication between people is a necessary thing when trying to develop the world etc. Obviously, media is doing its job very well, because most people find it difficult to communicate with people without the use of media.

I love media, because you can communicate with your relatives or friends whenever and wherever you want. Following the development of technology, no matter people are living apart each other, they are very easily able to communicate each other by Skype or Facebook. I am very closed to about 5 friends from my high school. They are all living in different countries such as Japan, USA, UK and South Korea. We are at least 10000km away from each other. However, there is no such barrier to contact each other as if we are in the same area. On top of that, it is a very natural phenomenon that you get home-sick after you leave your home. Nevertheless, you can diminish that feeling by Skyping with your family and talk and share their daily lives. Even 10 years ago, we could not dare seeing each other’s face when someone is living in a foreign country. Media can make people close more than ever before.

I love media, because media can change the attitude or ideology of people. To give a specific example, during Vietnam War, without the media that spread out the pictures of American soldiers who killed innocent Vietnamese brutally and treat them as slaves, the war could have been lasted longer. Because the attitude of people in USA changed by using media, the war could have stopped. Not only that, in the case of North Korea, they block all the media from outside of North Korea to ordinary people. That’s because they clearly know how the media can affect the lives of North Korean. The number of North Korean who flew to South Korea is increasing annually. That shows that the number of people getting influenced by media is also increasing as time goes on. Media can save these innocent people who suffer from a selfish dictator.   

Some people argue that media gives some negative effects such as spam or wrong propaganda in the fields of politics or society. However, as long as people use media efficiently and properly, media will never be used in a negative way. We are the ones who ruin and misuse media.

Hansung Ryu 11806214

Media make sure I won’t ever get bored.
Whenever I’m lonely, I can talk to anyone I want, from all around the world, within seconds.
Whenever I’m sad, there are countless of youtube videos and memes on the internet, that can turn my frown into a smile.
Whenever I seek a disctraction that keeps me from doing homework, I can go to any social-media platform and watch some crap I don’t even care about.

Media are there for me when I need them the most. That’s why I love Media.

Stijn Jager

Social media, in my opinion aren’t just phenomena that have taken over the web recently. They are in fact another us, or more specifically they are virtual human beings. This is because media are not existed as a real person but have human aspects. Since social media have the ability to communicate, interact and share contents with us, in a sense, it can also be considered as a sender or communicator, rather than a medium or an object that delivers messages. So it means it is independent.

Similarly, just like us media have also got double personality/sides. On the one hand, it brings benefits to us humans, such as entertainment, massive information, social connection and etc. On the other hand, it also causes problems to us, for instance, the addiction on social media or online games.

There are more other examples to illustrate the humanities that social media posse. But it is indeed the human aspects of social media that makes me love them, because  I feel I am dealing with authentic, close and “true” media.

L.Zhu

I love media because my  life is made up of it. I love media use social media to get in touch with my friends who are on the other side of the planet. I love media because my life is made up of visual and audio media and I can’t live without them. I love media because I can know where and when my favorite bands are playing without taking much effort.

That’s it. Media is what keeps me alive.

Siru Chen 2017/10/03

 

Why I Heart My Media

Being able to spend some quality time with loved ones even though oceans separate us and to forget about the distance that is between us for a moment is something that media has given us the opportunity to do, for this i will be forever grateful !

Elisa Boulter

I used to have a generalized concept of media modalities function in our everyday lives. Their existences serve as mediums when messages need conveying and ideas need spreading. The exposure and interactions of media are heuristically intersectional between men and men, between men and technologies. But in this ongoing progress, the further and implicit meaning of media is neglected since it has been already unwittingly permeated in our lives, what I heart about media during the process is that it provokes us to seek for our personalities that are not manifested that much in our consciousness.

I would say that certain hidden characteristics in our inner world may reveal through social media. For instance, we at times prefer to share the feelings and thoughts to those who we barely know from the Internet about what we may be embarrassed to or have few chances to say it out loud in real life, due to the fact that their appearance or personal background is not available, the strangers somehow earn our trust behind the screen. We can define that it illustrates the estrangement to our families to a moderate extent. Instead, it is also considered that opportunity is offered to purely make friends from different time zones, to be motivated from one another, to give or receive comfort from frustrations. It is a balance between the ability to be alone and the will to connect to the rest of the world. We are not likely to know if love conveyed via email or social media platforms is still what it meant to be in the first place. But our original intentions have been transmitted and contributed to establishing unexpected personal characters. It doesn’t matter how we follow each other on Internet or whether we know others’ names. What matters are the words, the language, no matter it is a video or an article, it shows the essence of expressions from cover to cover.

Luyao Zhong

Media speelt een belangrijke rol in vele verschillende manieren.
Als vrije tijd, als informatiebron, als communicatiemiddel, als indicator en nog zo veel meer. Onbewust zijn we er dag en nacht mee bezig. Het is een onuitputtelijke bron die van groot belang is in ieders leven. Bewust gebruik ik media vooral voor social media en om gebruik te maken van Spotify en Netflix. Omdat ik een buitenlandse student ben en nog geen kanalen op de televisie heb staan sluit ik mijn laptop aan om zo toch Netflix en afleveringen die her te bekijken zijn van kanalen in mijn land toch op televisie te zien. Ook het gebruik van whatsapp, facebook, messenger, snapchat en bellen & sms’en laat me toe contact te houden met vrienden en familie thuis. Dat helpt me bij het tegengaan van een eenzaam gevoel waardoor ik ook veel meer zin heb om hier aan de UvA te studeren! Je ziet maar wat voor positieve gevolgen er allemaal aan media verbonden zijn!

Mien Siemons

 

.. is because I can become an expert at anything. Wether I want to learn how to cook a traditional cantonese meal, cure acne or figure out how to build a website myself, it is all within reach thanks to media. Experts in all field are writing books and blogs, sharing the most crucial information and lessons that took them years to perfect a craft, for you to read within sometimes as little as 15 minutes. There are many documentaries that will teach you all you need to know about subject X in just an hour. Podcasts feed your brain with new research while you are on the go. Never before was it so easy and quick to learn something.

In the lectures we discussed how people soon will have chips in their brains making them smarter. However, I feel that we already had a “software update”, as the human species, by sharing our experiences to make it easier for others to learn and adapt. We are able to feed our knowledge easier and faster than ever before.

Evelina Butkute