Why I Heart My Media

At the beginning of the semester when I saw the ‘5 Secrets of Media Life’ on the screen I found it hard to believe that over the course of a semester someone would be able to sway my opinion so that I would strongly believe in all of them. Before this class I, like the majority of people today, are oblivious to the unique and somewhat uncanny connection we have with media. Think about it! We sleep with our cell phones, laptops, and other media devices. We feel more comfortable and connected just knowing our cell phone is there and we feel strange and alone when it’s not. After someone gets back from a vacation in which they couldn’t check their Facebook the first thing they do is check how many notifications they have. Our interdependence on media is to a point where we cannot escape it. But then again why should we? Everyday new technologies are coming out to make our lives more simple and more productive which is always really great. Don’t get me wrong I do think there is a point which we should not cross but I don’t see us getting to that bridge for quite a while. The point is that ‘we are everywhere’, ‘we are together alone’, ‘we can see everyone and everything’, ‘we are on the move’, and most importantly ‘we are media’. In all honesty I don’t believe most people could live without media these days. We rely on it so much that it is us and we are it and that is always going to be the case from this point on. What it comes down to is the point and name of this class, Media Life. Media is life. It is living, breathing, changing, and it is us.

At first thought, I had a hard time coming up with something new I had learned and will take away from T-101. However, I realized that I had actually just mainly learned a lot about myself and the way I interact with the media world. I realized that the point of this class was not only focused of how the media world is changing, but also how we are changing with it. I learned through the Facebook Essay how people can perceive even the smallest detail in a negative or positive light. With this, I also learned that it not only matters how I carry myself in the real world, but also the media world. Through the Google Essay, I learned that what I do and say online can be seen by just searching my name. This made me realize just how easy someone could find information on myself. Lastly, if anything I will take away from this class the fact that though I’m just another person on the web, my mark will always remain online.

Bryan Cohen (brycohen@indiana.edu

After taking this class I have decided that Media Life is about realizing that we live in two realities. This class introduces the idea that our media creates a new reality for ourselves, through Facebook profiles, blogs, emails, videogames, cellphones, etc. we are creating an image to an online community that is supposed to be ‘representative’ of who we really are.

Media is creating a new society. It’s a society that has zombie like features, enforces strict surveillance, and is constantly on the search to integrate media in any shape or form to our daily realities. Media isn’t just part of our society today it IS our society today. We simultaneously use multiple media devices throughout the day and integrate them so that we depend on them to get things done efficiently , effectively, and quickly.

We have passed the stage of trying to keep media out of our lives, we now are approaching the stage of accepting that fact and instead embracing media and really allowing it so help our lives. We are beginning to integrate our media reality and our live reality into one, in order to create the ideal reality that incorporates media and real life into one.

This course helped in showing how important of a role and how much our media really does factor into our lives,which is neither a good thing or a bad thing. This day in time, media is something that we need to learn to co-habitate with because it is not going to go away. New and interesting and often very confusing and foreign topics were discussed which is a good thing because it made us really think about media and the effect that it has on our lives. Media is everywhere and it is only going to show up more and more. Having grown up with media my whole life, the course made known to me how difficult it is for others before my time to learn how to use these new technologies and how to apply them into their lives today. Also it questions us about our reality and what we know to be ‘real’. It’s up to us and our own interpretation to decide between ‘reality’ and a ‘virtual reality’.

Once in a Facebook message, I told a close friend in Ecuador (Will) how glad I was that even though I was now living in Indiana, far from everyone and everything I loved, I was so thankful for the ability to utilize Facebook and Skype to continue communication with them, to which Will replied: “That [the usage of media for communication with loved ones far away] got me living in a virtual world here [Ecuador] a little and I had to rip myself out of it. It’s not real, and we’re not meant to live in it.”

The first thing I would tell Will about living in media is this: it’s real; or at least every bit as real as living outside of it. Isn’t it ironic that Will would make this comment via Facebook messaging?

In light of some recent lectures concerning reality, living in media as we know it–and life in general, for that matter–may not be real, but you cannot have one without the other. If we truly live, we live in media. To say that our lives in media are not real would be like me running into Will the next day and having no recollection of the messages we had exchanged. Was everything said in those messages fake? No. Through social media, we spoke as if we were sitting across from one another at a coffeehouse table. The conversation got very deep at times–made us feel; made us think. Were these responses also fake? They occurred in what Will would consider the “real world” but were they not a by-product of living in media. To deny the existence of our lives in media would be to deny everything that has happened in the “real” world as a result of media or something that has happened in media. I revert to a common example in class: the Arab Spring. Were the thousands of virtual protesters, hacktivists and Twitter revolutionaries fake? Did they not have some part; some effect on the results in the “real” world?

The fact is: the media is here. We use it. It cannot be denied. Will’s comment was hypocritical, in that he denied the authenticity of media life while proving precisely why it is every bit as authentic as anything he has ever said to me in person. I find it very unlikely that next time I see my friend he will be questioning me about  what’s actually been going on in my life because he considers what I revealed to him via Facebook superficial.

Will also said we’re not meant to live in this virtual world. This is a different debate, but in my beliefs, I also have conflict with this statement. I don’t believe that things that “aren’t meant to be” happen. Call me what you will, but if something exists, I believe it’s there for a reason. Media is in our lives for myriad reasons, but first and foremost it has been created to be used. And even if there isn’t a reason for everything, I see no reason why anything in this world exists only to be ignored and denied–especially something like media; it was not created to be shown off and then abandoned. The more media evolves to be a part of our lives, the more we are meant to live in it.

Where there is media, there is life. Hence the term, “media life.” And that’s what it’s all about.

T101 has impressed me in this semester because of its interesting way of lecture and discussion. This class makes me know a lot about how media affects our life what i never think before. Media is not only cell phone, TV, computer we use in everyday life but also is a technology used to improve our life. With this class I realize that media is everywhere, you can control it but cannot make it disappear. In addition, there are also some controversial aspects like our privacy information sometimes will be leaked through media. That’s what I really learned a lot in this class, and why I heart my media.

This class has taught me many things. It has taught me that I want to be more private, and while I think I can never escape media, I will try to lessen it’s influence on me. This class has taught me so much that I can’t possibly describe it to another person. It has inception like qualities where I realize that media is spinning top that never stops, however I like for my top to fall over and the class ends up driving me insane when I start to think about all the surveillance and exactly how the companies are monitoring us.
However I do love the Media we get to see and I would really say this class is more of a philosophical class in making everyone truly think about their media and how it affects our lives and making us aware of what media really is and how we label media and the public sharing of our information. No matter what Media will be in my life but I am determined for the only media to be seen about me is what I allow and thanks to this class I feel more aware and more prepared for dealing with media and now I truly understand that while this class has taught me much I still have more to learn and to know. My take away is that while I will never truly know how the internet works and how to find some information. I know that the answers are out there and that through investigation and understanding of how the internet grows I can make it in this media world and stay private like what I want.

Media life is not a typical “study of our medias.” It is something more. T101’s professor, Mark Deuze, explores media integration with us. While I do not agree with all of Professors Deuze’s philosophies, the class is still an interesting exploration. Is your reality real? Can you change reality? And even: How do you know a city exists? These are all examples of questions asked when examining a life in media. The course becomes about us–humanity as a whole–becoming the media, rather than “solving the problem.” The idea that media as reality is a frequent idea tossed around in T101, but this is where Professor Deuze and myself differentiate. I agree that media are real. Strong emotions are associated with them, and because of those emotions media is real. That isn’t to say they are reality. The media simply try and represent reality. For the sole fact that tasting a hamburger and trying to taste one on a television commercial, shows the reality and the real representation that is where reality and media differentiate. Although the TV commercial’s burger undoubtedly looks more appetizing, it is not reality. It is a real representation, however. Emotions don’t make something a reality, they simply make it real. Emotions contribute to the many phobias in the world. Is an irrational fear that all dogs are evil a reality? No, but it is real. It’s there and it’s how we deal with what is real that makes a reality. All of that being said, the course is an interesting environment to explore our integration with media. It’s a great class, that’s loads of fun, and I believe everyone should take the course because it approaches the media life from a different angle, forcing anyone to think outside the box and interpret how their media affects them.

T101 Media Life is a course that opens your eyes to how prevalent media is in your everyday life. Previous to taking this course you may have little knowledge of the major role that media plays in your life. We learn that essentially we are media, media is everywhere & increasingly so as we speak. We learn how, where, and when media integrates itself into our lives, but the most important question we face in this course is WHY is media so prevalent in our lives– why are we so obsessed with our cell phones, MacBooks, facebook, twitter? In this class professor Deuze assesses these questions with a variety of explanations but he leaves the ultimate answer up to us to figure out. Mark makes the course intriguing, he showed clips about certain technologies I had no idea even existed, he does a great job of relating with students & explaining the topics we explore in class. T101 Media Life is an awesome course that gives you insight and understanding of not only media but also of life in general. I would highly recommend this course to those not only in telecommunications but in many other departments, I believe the information we are taught in this class is essential.

Chelsea Patton

T101 Media Life has actually impacted me personally. I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I use and consume media because of this class. If someone were to ask me what the class is about this is what I would tell them. The class challenges you to explore your own investment in media life by providing numerous examples of how it impacts our society in general. The professor frequently mentions that he doesn’t expect that you agree with him, only that you consider his arguments. The lecture portion always covers a general topic that is further discussed in the discussion sections later in the week. T101 Media Life isn’t really about media at all, but rather they ways in which society has evolved because of media. – Erin Schoemer