Why I Heart My Media

T101 Media Life is about making us aware of our media use, and how it truly does play a impact on society. We really do take for granted how much influence media has had on the the world, but at the same time let it have too much influence over our lives. Social Media outlets can start riots, completely revolutionizing a countries government system . Who can doubt the sheer power of media when situations like these keep popping up all over the world? Media keeps us connected and there’s no logical escape. Media is an all powerful deity; the only escape is death (which will then be posted on Facebook the exact moment it happens).

-Dylan Snyder

What t101 made me realize is how much of a digital footprint we have all left behind without even realizing. Media has become an essential part of our lives in terms of every day functioning to self expression. More and more everyday technology is vastly improving and making media a main staple in almost everything that we do. What t101 made me realize is how us as individuals can manipulate media and use it’s functions to create an image of ourselves for the world to see that can be entirely different than our actual real-life selves. Through social media, the image that we present to the world is what we want it to be. We can enter into a media masquerade, putting whatever mask we chose on to become someone we wish we could be. Media has that power.

What t101 has made me realize is that we have all been blessed with the sheer power of media. Media’s tools are only going to improve and enhance our grasp on our digital world, and now that I have a grasp on the true power of it, I can now see how us as individuals can make a societal impact through our media.

The power is endless. And that is why I heart media

– Daniel Shaver

Throughout my high school and college education thus far, I have had many classes that make me think deeply about certain assignments or subjects. But none of these have ever made me realize something about my own life that I had never realized or notice before. During the course of this class, I have become aware of all of the media that surrounds us. It is everywhere… literally, everywhere. You can’t really even walk down the street without seeing someone on their cell phone, laptop, or iPod. Over the years its been a gradual phenomenon that has brought us to now, where we can actually be our own media. We have gained so much control over it that we can be the controller (kinect, epidermal electronics, etc.). Even though we have gained control in some ways of our media, media still has such a grasp on us. We are so “addicted” that in studies of people who abstain from their technologies, the subjects experience withdrawal symptoms. From learning all of this in T101, I have accepted that technology is an inescapable part of life that is here to stay. It will only become more and more invasive and personal until every detail of our lives are readily available for others to see. It is up to us, now that we are aware, to make the choice to ride along with the information movement or to shield what we share online.

-Meghan Burke
meeburke@indiana.edu

What is the point of looking at yourself and the world we live in from the perspective of living in media?

The answer is in the question; the point of looking at ourselves and the world from this perspective is because life as we know it is making a shift into media. I may be Sean Meehan to my parents, the sweet, kind hearted, perfect, pure soul that they raised, yet to Ashley Hudson (Random name), a girl who is a senior at my high school, who follows me on twitter, I’m an avid sports fan who’s a die hard Indiana University Basketball fan and not afraid to show it; also love video games and raunchy comedy. With the more and more people stepping into media life, and social media, I start to notice myself grooming myself from all the “impressive stuff” that would have gotten me attention before. I’ve toned down from being “cool” in media, to just being, me, in media. It has become my life, school, job, family, all apart of media and use facets of media technology to connect better. I’m very thankful for my media and because of T101, now have a better understanding of media; now I know, I just don’t use media, but I contribute, and AM media: Always Changing and on the move.

 

Sean Meehan

Email: smmeehan@indiana.edu

Twitter: SeanMMeehan

 

 

 

This class is all about how we use our media every day.  Media is all around us and we all use it, this use of media is affecting how we view our world, and how we interact with everyone.  This class makes you question our reality and makes you question what you are really doing on your devices.  This class uses social networks, apps, movies, short stories, and many other resources to ask the question: so what?  So what is the point of media: why do we care about it, why do we use it, why is it so important about it, etc.  This class makes you question your use of media and makes you wonder about the “so what?” of media life.

Professor Mark Deuze makes a clear statement that T101 Media Life is not a philosophical class. It is however, a class that questions almost everything in your life involving media. His lectures cause us to question our reality; is everything real or are we living in a made up world? From the beginning of the semester to now, Mark has successfully convinced me, and over half the class, that our reality, wether it is real or not, is always twisted into media. We cannot escape it. Media watches us, changes us, connects us, and keeps us living. You may think you are alone, but you are always together through media.

Jackie Hruska

–jahruska@indiana.edu

This course was hard to follow the real meaning and point.  Throughout the semester I kept asking myself why any of the material that was covered in class mattered at all to me, personally; more or less asking the question, “So what?”, after most of the lectures.  So the conclusion that I arrived at here at the end of the semester, and ultimately this course, is that we must accept media into our lives working intertwined with it and no try to “fight the machines” as they can greatly help the works of our every day lives.  If we work together with media, people are afraid that we will lose the old-fashioned way of communicating, actually talking to someone without the use of a media form.  All of these new forms of communication are faster and easy.  So by having these new forms of communication become so widely used by the population, it makes the older ways of communicating that much stronger than it used to be.  Think, an email today is an old-fashioned letter, just in a quicker form.  So if someone actually sits down and writes a letter, then that letter will mean so much more to the recipient than just receiving an email.  We must accept the new forms of communicating as they help us get information to each other quickly, rather than having news get from the east coast to the west coast in a couple of days.  Media can bring us so much, so why fight it when we can exploit it’s greatness that opens up so many more opportunities for us.

 

Glenn Halasz

Media Life is a course unlike any other I’ve taken. Not only does one learn about the media we deal with and use on a daily basis—it explains how we as individuals and as a society are media. That means how we use media, how we react to media, and how we criticize media is all part of media. This class debunks the myth that one can “get away” from media—it’s virtually inescapable! Even the Amish community, which shuns technological advancements like electronics, plays a large part in the media. This course helps one open their eyes to just what media is, how it affects daily life, social interactions, and how society as a whole has changed due to media. On the contrary, one learns about how people and society have changed media due to basic social needs. Overall, this course comes highly recommended by many, including myself. It’s the best course I’ve ever taken.

–Nick Reith
nbreith@indiana.edu

The main point of the course with all the information we received boils down to the Truman show and how integrated media is with our lives. To best answer this I think an example would be best. Right before I wrote this I saw a Windows 7 pc commercial where a couple was on the internet talking on MSN and chatting with others about marriage. When they make the big announcement their computer gets blown up with IMs so they close the computer, turning it off with a sign of relief. Seconds later his cellphone starts rapidly buzzing and beeping with incoming IMs. I think this commercial effectively displays media in society today. We don’t interact with media like in the past, sitting down watching television for hours is simply out dated. We now live our lives through media, so much that media has become embedded into our everyday lives/actions. Some may argue that is has negative impacts on society, but from what I’ve picked up from the class, the right level of media in our lives is beneficial. Media isn’t going anywhere, and is actually becoming more and more popular every year. Learning that we have becomes so dependent on media, and were living “media lives”, it only makes sense that once you establish yourself in media, its nearly impossible to leave. So embrace media, keep the Twitter, Facebook, etc, but keep those privacy setting up, because you never know whos out there.

 

Alex Sailor- asailor@umail.iu.edu