When it comes to my relationship with the media, I'd say its a pretty close one. I guess it depends on what you define as media, which was spoken about last week in the first seminar of the media audiences module I am studying. In my daily life, I class media as TV, radio, magazines etc...all those kinds of things that you can think of off the top of your head. Further speaking, there's social media, which plays a massive part in my life as I think it does most people my age (stereotyping, but this is true for the majority of people I know).
Like your elders probably tell you (and tut while they do) - 'its just your generation'. This is the case, I have grown up in a world surrounded by media in all different forms...I mean, talk about the 'reality tv era'. However, I don't and never have thought that this is necessarily is a bad thing, I'd much rather have media it not at all. I do think there are many negative connotations when it comes to media, especially social media.
Social media plays a huge part in my life, I use it for various purposes. You've probably heard the phrase 'its all fun and games until someone gets hurt', I've heard people use this phrase when talking about social media and yeah, I guess its true - but then isn't it for most things in life? Its just the way it is. Sometimes I think people have to have a problem with everything, and personally I believe that social media is a great creative outlet if anything, a way of communicating with people, on a different level.
I use social media for my personal life, Facebook (of course) keeps me up to date with close family and friends' lives and what they're up to. This comes with the use of the platform's 'Messenger' as well, which I use on a daily basis. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google +...you name it, I check them everyday. Its so easy to be sucked in by it. More in particular however, I utilise social media for my blog. I'm sure you know I write a blog (as you're probably here from my university class), so social media is a huge interest of mine alongside just using it for my personal life. I love learning about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), seeing statistics and analytics and finding out how to get the best use out of it. Because of this, I would say my relationship with media a positive one.
I'm not going to go into my opinions on the whole 'is social media fake?' debate, which followed from the Essena O'Neil video last November, because I'd be here forever so I think I'll save that for another time. But, of course this is a relevant issue. There are definitely cons of social media, however for myself the pro's outweigh this and therefore I have no problem with it.
Its not just social media that I find myself using everyday, although I would say it is the type of media I use the most, I don't think I can go a day without watching an episode of whatever current series I'm watching or listening to one of my favourite songs. I can't drive without listening to music on the radio (Capital FM really need to stop playing Calvin Harris), I constantly see adverts everyday, I read and watch the news daily. Media is just embedded into my life, I'm definitely not ashamed of it but I suppose when you really think about how much time you invest into other outlets it is a bit crazy.
Maybe I'll take more time to breathe this year.
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