Why I Heart My Media

We all live in one space, a reality determined by the user’s interactions among themselves and each other. Although we are bonded by media, it separates us in physical reality; we all groove and move throughout our own canvases, our own ‘soundtrack.’

Whether media helps or hinders our daily processes is irrelevant because it is an immediate guarantee that media will continue to accelerate in its contributions to all aspects of our lives; therefore, individuals should be compelled to focus on the positive affects of mediation in order to take advantage of the power it instills within us.

I enjoy Media Life T101. Professor Professor Mark Deuz is a great professor. He entertains the class with hilarious video that illustrate the use of media. One thing that I learned from Media Life 101 is that Media is everywhere; no,really, I am more aware that media are “everywhere” #paranoidrightnow.

I feel that this class has not only made me more aware of what media is but how people interpret media as well.  Being only nineteen years old, I have grown up with media all around me.  My parents, who were born in 1959 and 1960, have always had trouble understanding why it is I wanted a MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and even a cell phone throughout the years.  This past summer was even a battle in convincing them why purchasing a smart phone was worth the extra cost.  The fact MediaLife made me aware of was that my parents grew up in a generation that didn’t understand media as we do today.  Media has become such a vital part of our lives in the 21st century and most adults who lived before these times don’t accept or understand it.  We are becoming less private with our lives due to social networking sites.  The most important thing I have learned from this class, in my opinion, is not to have an extremely optimistic point of view on media.  We must be able to discern reality from the virtual world.  A satiric example of our dependence on media is a quote on found while surfing the web:

“The trouble with quotes on the internet is that it’s difficult to discern whether or not they are genuine.”
― Abraham Lincoln

With this “quote” by Abraham Lincoln we are told that we must be cautious not to believe everything we see online.  To truly appreciate media, we must understand it.

 

-Chelsie Bousum

This class really makes you think about how people use their media. Coming into this class, I didn’t really think about media all that much. Now, I have started to realize the connections and relationships people have with media. It controls lives and helps people stay connected with loved ones. You learn so much from this class about media’s relationships with people. This class is by far my favorite of the semester. Mark Deuze is a great professor and keeps things interesting!

I Heart Media because for my career I can use it to network and maintain connections with people that I have worked with.

Media life is a class about reevaluating how you present yourself. It forces you to recognize that people will critique you based on the smallest things you do or say.

Because of this, I have not changed my media postings, but I have become more conscious of what I am posting and how it might affect me.

Laura Wight

ljwight@umail.iu.edu

This class has made me think twice about what media really means in this world. Before this class, I didn’t realize how much media controls our life and why it is such an important part of our lives. After learning about new technologies and how technology has grown so much, I have realized that our world has changed drastically and will continue to change. I never thought about how our lives may one day be controlled my robots but now that I’ve learned about this, it doesn’t even seem that farfetched.

To be honest, I have actually been asked this question almost every time I mentioned that I was taking T101. And I think the answer is somewhat simple, even in a complex class. T101 Media Life is basically about learning just how much media has taken over our world. Making us aware that we cannot hide from it, and how it will always be with us. And the class has proved this is not an opinion, it is a cold hard fact. From there, it is up to us to decide, after learning about the complete dominance of media, what exactly we want to do with it.The class is giving us different ideas, and we have to decide what we agree with, what we completely disagree with, and how we are going to live our lives in a media-driven world. But the truth is that media is here to stay, and will only continue to grow. In a way, I think some of what we have learned has also helped us to learn what people do wrong in media, and what we can do to avoid it, whether that is one of the goals of the class or not. Since the class started, I have put my facebook and twitter on the most private settings, deleted “friends” that I did not know and become much smarter about what I post. In the end, T101 has taught me how to be smart in media, by helping me realize that it is everywhere, and that you cannot escape it. But you can still have a sense of control, if you choose to.

We’re all ****ing zombies.

Could leave it at that, but there are probably at least four others doing the same.

This class hit all the high notes, and I think that it was a great source of learning on how we interact not only with media, but with people on a daily basis.

I feel the course was about… how we are blending together. Machines, people, intelligence, reason, emotion, it’s all coming together online, and we cannot escape from it. We can, however, shape it, mold it, give it substance to stand on, because when it comes down to it we made the Web, we control what’s on it.

I have just realized that I have been blathering on auto-pilot for the last paragraph.

*sigh* Okay. What it comes down to is this:

-We are together alone.
-We are interdependent and independent.
-We share more and less than we want to with the world.

Contradictions, yes. Much like living dead is a contradiction.
So the point of this course is:

We are all ****ing zombies. But is that actually a bad thing?

Thanks to Mark Deuze for teaching an awesome class.

Media Life is a great class if you are looking to open your eyes and broaden your horizon beyond what you think is real. This semester is coming to and end and just within 14 weeks my thoughts about and ways I use media have dramatically changed. This course educates you about the powers and responsibilities, you as an individual, have within media.

*NUT SHELL*
Prior to this course I was blind…Now I see. I see a completely different world.

Mark is changing the minds of thousands, hopes to be millions someday.
Thank You Mark for the wonderful experience.