Media Log

Despite my log, I know I am aware that I am addicted to media. I use new media more so than traditional though. We had to do our blogs for the three days of the week I am the busiest though. I wish I could have done it different days so that I could have got the chance to really see how much I use everything. If I were not in class all day and at work my log would have been a lot larger. I am surprised how much I did use media thinking back about how busy I was throughout the days I kept my log.

            I use my phone all day, everyday. On my phone I am constantly multi-tasking by checking my text messages, email, Facebook, Twitter and numerous other things. I am not surprised by the amount I multi-task and I do very well when doing this. Besides from using my phone, I always find myself on at least five different websites when I am on my laptop. Usually while I am doing this I am also doing homework, watching television / listening to music.

            I think if I really had to I could go without the media I use frequently. I have done it in the past when I studied abroad in Ireland. We really didn’t have access to much and I had no phone (which was the hardest part of the trip). But even though I did not enjoy not having access to my everyday media, I got through it and I am sure I could do it again. The hardest thing for me to give up was my cell phone and the easiest thing to give up was television.

            From keeping this log I learned, or should I say realized, is that I am very busy throughout the week. After I finished my log on Thursday it made me think about it more over the weekend. I figured out that I am constantly using media, especially social media.

            Hamlet’s Blackberry by William Powers I learned a lot about connectedness. I really liked the theory of Digital Maximalism. I think my experience relates to Monday’s lecture because, like most of my friends, I feel like we are all ‘hyper connected’. This meaning that we are always heavily connected to the media world and are very heavy on multi-tasking. I believe the reason why people think they are good at multi-tasking nowadays is because it is becoming so much more popular. In 2008, only 16% of the population was considered to be hyper connected. Now in 2010, it was said that 40% of everyone is hyper connected and I know the numbers will just keep getting larger.

Growing Up Online

            When I first went online I was very young. We always had computers in my school since kindergarten but we did not always have the Internet. When I first began going online I used the Internet for homework and assignments. We also had computer classes in elementary school that taught us how to use computers and the Internet. When I was younger I disliked how slow the Internet was, especially when a lot of people were on my school server. It would take forever for the pages to load and to download things.

            Learning how to use the Internet at such an early age definitely helps because the earlier you learn how to use something the easier it is to comprehend and maintain how to use it. Learning so young has made it easier for my generation to use it for our needs. Previous generations before us did not have the Internet so they used libraries and books for all of their research. Although we do still use books as resources, the Internet is definitely our go-to resource for almost all things. Now most people have the Internet on their phones and laptops. It makes it a lot easier to gain knowledge when needing it. It also allows everyone to retrieve the knowledge much faster.

            In terms of Growing Up Online, I found it very interesting that the Internet shifted from being in control by adults to being taken over by the generations underneath them. Young adults, teenagers and children are now in control of the Internet. They make up the largest percentage of usage. The documentary says that they encounter so much media the advertising and media studies work they live in. As a result of this, older generations feel like these generations must be taught through different media outlets. One person in the documentary says, “kids walking into a classroom without media makes them feel like they’re walking into a desert”. I totally agree with that and think the same way.

            The documentary reminded me of my own friends when they spoke about kids no longer reading books and instead they read online summaries and spark notes. That reminded me of my own friends because that is what we always did throughout grade school, especially middle school. Also reminding me of my own friends is when they were talking about how kids use social media to let out anger and problems. Cyber bullying definitely took place in middle school in my school. People used to write on MySpace, their blogs and fight over instant messenger. It made me remember about middle school though when they spoke about people never actually would talk about these problems in person.

            The most disturbing thing within the documentary is when they discussed the people leading different lives online. It is very disturbing that you could think your seeing someone online and not even notice him or her in person because they look completely different. A perfect example of this is the girl in the documentary that was known as the ‘gothic princess’ online. I do not even know what could be done in order to make that aspect of the online experience less disturbing because it really was the girl, she just made herself appear to look completely different and almost unrecognizable. That, itself, is also very disturbing.

            Growing Up Online needs to be changed since the online experience has changed. I think since this documentary has been released a lot has been done about cyber bullying and Internet sex crimes. That being said, I believe that they should now focus more on the online advertisements that leech themselves to social networking pages. Although a lot of times it can be very harmless and informative, I believe that some times it can be more personal and almost seems like your computer and the advertisements are stalking your online experience.