Why I Heart My Media

I believe that taking media life can open your eyes – pun intended – to all of the media that we consume on a regular basis. Before taking this course, I was so unaware of how much media controlled my life. Now – I find myself searching for what is real and taking advantage of the moments in my life that do not involve media. While media isn’t something to necessarily fear, I believe that we should be aware of it. If we are not aware of media, we can often lose sight of what is real and become extremely immersed in technology. While I LOVE my media and would not be able to communicate with my loved ones without it, I feel that many people spend too much time using media to isolate themselves from the “real” world. By taking this class – I feel that we are all fortunate enough to learn not only a lesson on media – but a lesson on realizing what actually matters in life. You can watch the Notebook 100 times but it will never be as gratifying as falling in love yourself. 

 

Rachel Kaplan 

RAKAPLAN@indiana.edu 

Like me, you probably registered for this class, noticed it’s a lecture with about 400 kids, and–as our minimally active, underdeveloped minds have taught us–instinctively thought “YES! I can totally skip this class on a weekly basis.” This, for the most part, is true. I had this revelation on this first day of class, but, just as quickly, realized that this is not a class I would ever want to miss. T101 isn’t just an introductory class that buys time until you start taking 2 and 300-level courses, but rather a catalyst to get our young minds thinking philosophically about all the varying effects media have on our lives. Coming out of this class, odds are good that you will re-evaluate how much time you spend on Facebook, and you will probably hate yourself every time you find yourself pretending to be on your phone to look busy in public. If nothing more, this class has opened my eyes to just how much we make media, and, subsequently, media make us; oh, and to the shameless fashion sense of the Dutch, because Deuze can wear some crazy shit sometimes.

Having changed my major to Telecommunications at the beginning of the semester, I didn’t know what to expect. This is where Media Life comes into the picture. Seeing that I needed this course to fulfill the requirements for my major I expected it to be the usual introductory class where I’d be assigned busy work and be falling asleep every couple of minutes, but that was not the case. Media Life allowed our individual creativity and ideas flow with the class themes as well as with the assignments. The first day in that class made me see how we are affected by media and how we, as a society affect it. Media Life put us in a place where we were asked to look into our personal use of social media as well as when we’re not in the presence of it and how it changes us as a person. Professor Deuze allowed us to look into our use of media life with the help of examples that pertained to each week’s lesson. Through this course I was able to learn that we, as a society, are the largest contributors to media life. And without us, there would be no such thing.

Even though Mark once mentioned in a lecture that he does not want to delve into the philosophy aspect, I think the most valuable takeaway from the class is the change in the way of thinking and reasoning. Therefore, to me, T101 is about triggering the complicated thinking, steering a student (myself as an example) away from following the safe and common way of thinking to start looking at an issue from many perspective and wonder “so what?” all the time.

Learning that there is no good or bad in media, that media reality is reality, to question reality, and different aspects of the innovations and evolutions in media as well as in the humans’ creative system, I figured out how to utilize different viewpoints to see a problem. The ultimate point of such learning makes the student think out of the box. From that point, the student sees the issue better. For example, it’s easy to argue that media are good or bad or that the reality is not real at all. However, it’s not easy to realize that media are neither good or bad and ask oneself “so what if the reality is not real?”. If the reality is not real, a person should try to create innovations, not to escape the reality in a negative way. That is the point of creativity. In other words, the first telecom class answers the question of many students (not just telecom majors), “Why do have to sit through the lectures? Why do I study telecom and media?” or even “Why do I go to college?”.

The Why’s, then, remind me of the title of this class, “Media Life.” I used to think it’s vague because media life includes so many aspects. Now I think it fits the class material because instead of learning such “many aspects,” I learned why and how to think about media life instead.

I think all Professor Deuze is raising awareness in our media usage. After taking this class I’m starting to think about things that I probably knew unconsciously but never truly took notice of. The panopticon, google watching our searches, fb owning the stuff we upload, wikiality, zombie effect, etc. somehow in the back of I mind I knew these things existed but never understood the magnitude of some of these phenomenon. I don’t think Professor Deuze is asking us to argue or pick a side but simply be alert. He has introduced us to many perspectives of media life (the Amish, media cities, scholar’s POVs) and it’s kind of up to us to decide how much we want to take in and leave out.

When I first signed up for Media Life, I admit I was just trying to fulfill a requirement for my Telecommunications major. Needless to say, I am very happy that I took this class, and if I had been more informed regarding it’s content, I would have taken it regardless of necessity. Media Life is a class in which students take a step back from media to see how pervasive it is in modern life. Media is an omnipresent, ever-growing entity, and we are exposed to it regardless of conscious effort. In T101 Media Life, students are challenged to be aware of how their actions feed media, how we are consistently “alone together;” connecting to one another through solitary action. What we do with media, and what we allow media to do to us, is at the heart of this class – and anyone with an interest in connectivity through media should take this course.

Throughout this semester, professor Deuze has challenged my thinking on media in my everyday life.  Before beginning Media Life, I really took media for granted and had never fully realized the way it has and will continue to impact major world events.  Previously, I had assumed that the argument regarding media was whether it was a positive thing or a negative one.  I have learned that this argument is irrelevant.  As time progresses, technology will only become more involved in our everyday lives, which in turn will increase the amount of media that we are exposed to.  The paradigm has changed.  The current debate is over the sheer amount of media that will be available in the future.  Clearly we’re not getting rid of media any time soon, so arguing over whether it is good or bad is of little importance.

T101 Media Life is a class unlike any other that I have ever taken. This class has caused me to question how media affects the way I view reality. I believe that this class should be labeled as a psychology or philosophy class instead of a telecommunications class because it focuses on how we view reality, and the only thing that saves it is that it does so through media. Though I did not agree with everything that the professor, Mark, says he still forces me to view things from different perspectives and ask questions. Many people describe this class through a movie but I believe the only way to accurately describe this class is through multiple movies because this class is about viewing media through multiple view points, and the movies are Inception, The Truman Show, Avatar, and The Matrix. The movie Inception causes us to question our reality, The Truman Show shows us how pervasive media is in our lives even if we don’t know it, Avatar is a metaphor for how we use media to try and become the version of ourselves that we want to be (juicy hamburger), and The Matrix shows us how technology is in itself alive and how we can be “imprisoned” by media. All of these movies describe this class because these are some of the main topics of the course and these ideas are a major part of our lives and who we are weather we know it are not.

Taking Media Life has given me an entirely new perspective of media.  So many people make claims that media has been a detriment to social interaction.  However, this course has helped me realize it is neither advantageous or disadvantageous, it is simply a new way of going about our everyday lives.  Media, as technology evolves, it does not necessarily improve, it simply changes laterally.

Through this class I have learned to view media as an integral aspect of life.  Media has grown to make it practically impossible to “escape” media.  We are living in a world where we cannot separate the “real” world with the media world.  One thing I will take from this class is I will be able to acknowledge the massive role media has in the world today.

Before taking Media Life, it seemed as though much of what I heard teachers say about media was negative. They warned me as a young girl to be aware of online predators, while as I got older they told me to watch the information I put on my facebook profile because if I wasn’t careful it could ruin my life. However, Mark turned all that around. He presented the class with the idea that media was neither bad nor good, but something that is complex, interesting and beautiful.

I feel that one of the most significant things I have taken away from the class is not to take my media for granted. Growing up, surrounded by media, it had just become something in my life that I didn’t think much about and used naturally. But Media Life has taught me to appreciate my media, for it is one of the realities which I live in (something I would have denied in August). Most importantly, it allows me to stay connected with my family and friends and fuels my imagination and creativity- the things I love most in my life.