Media…
I would never have noticed how much media affects my life if it wasn’t for, well, having to actually pay attention. I figured that because I don’t watch t.v. much, I was living media-free for the most part. Boy was I wrong. Media is everywhere and anywhere! Media definately affects me the most when I’m in my car. I always have music playing when I drive, no matter how short the trip is. Even though I’m sick of hearing “tonight’s gonna be a good night” by the Black Eyed Peas, it didn’t stop me from turning up the volume. If nothing good is playing on the six stations I have preset, then I resort to the old CD that I currently have in my car. While driving along and listening to song artists, I always notice several billboards. They range from advertisements for buying a new BMW, to religious pictures and quotes from the bible. This just goes to show that nothing escapes the all powerful media. I rely on music for a lot more than just driving though. When I’m not in class, I’m almost constantly listening to music. Right after I get out of the shower every morning, I turn on music to help start off my day. During the two day period of recording my media usage, I was about to go for a run. I had on my tennis shoes, sports bra, and the whole nine yards. Before heading out, of course I went to grab my ipod but- AH! – it was nowhere to be found! After searching for it for a good fifteen minutes, I gave up on finding it which resulted in me aborting the whole run idea. I suppose it’s pretty sad that I can’t even run a mile without Beyonce right there with me, encouraging my every step with the beat in her songs. Naturally, my cell phone is a very important part of my daily routine. It’s actually the very first thing I see/ hear in the morning because I use it as my alarm clock. The annoying high pitched “doo-doo-doo!” sound is what gets me to my classes everyday. Also, it helps me to overcome the issues that I seem to have with being on time. Since I don’t use a watch, I depend on my cell phone to tell me what time it is. Oddly enough, I don’t text often as a means of communication like most of my peers, but I do use it to plan lunch dates and things like that. After dating a guy for two years who was obsessive about staying in contact with me, I find it very relaxing to only text when I need to. I admit to having a slight addiction to facebook. I check it about three to five times a day, which totals up to be about an hour of each day on facebook. I do check the weather on my laptop every morning, and if you’ve ever been to weather.com you know how many ads there are (roughly a million, give or take a few). I try not to spend time on the internet and watching t.v. because there is always something productive I could be doing. Some good media came my way via mail the other day- coupons! Who doesn’t love coupons?! They advertise for the company, in this case we’re talking about Papa Johns and Smoothie King, while saving me money. Everyone wins! In conclusion, the two days that I spent monitering my media taught me that I couldn’t survive without music, but ultimately I don’t use it as much as I thought I did.
^This video is by a group called Social Media Addicts Association. I thought it was especially interesting because the people in it are British- which means we’er not the only country with this problem. Enjoy!
No Media…
When I first learned we were going to have to live without media for 48 hours, I had the same reaction as my fellow classmates- “What?! How will I survive?!”. Just the thought of it was enough to make my stomache turn as I wondered what people would think I was doing if my status wasn’t updated on facebook. After I got past the initial shock and acceptance of the assignment, I realized that this wasn’t going to be nearly as hard as it sounded. I’m part of the minority amoung my peers when it comes to media usage. I love the feeling of doing something productive, like cleaning my apartment or doing laundy, versus watching a t.v. program. During those two days, instead of watching t.v., I did homework or went shopping. Rather than chatting with friends on facebook, I spent my time chatting with my roomates and our neighbors. It was literally impossible for me to avoid all types of media for two days. As I mentioned above, I use my cell phone alarm to wake up every day. To avoid falling behind in my classes, I continued using it for that purpose. I barely texted at all, which wasn’t a big deal for me. Not being able to check the weather and facebook in the morning was tough. Instead of getting on my laptop I used my extra time to enjoy a cup of coffee. On day two of living without media, I missed the shuttle from my apartment to TU and had to drive. Let me just say that driving without music is bad, but when you add a rainy day and Towson University traffic to the mix, it turns out to be very frustrating. Music helps to keep me entertained when I’m stuck in traffic, and without it I get antsy. So what’s a girl to do when she can’t hear her favorite jams? Make her own! I hummed and sang to myself to fill the silent void in my car. In conclusion, I feel like media is impossible to avoid. It’s become a major part in our society and everyone needs it in some form or another.
