Ever since I can remember I have been addicted to the TV. When I was a kid I used to complain when my mom would make me stop watching TV so I could come to the table for dinner. More recently, I have stopped caring about the TV per se and more about media in general. I'm almost constantly connected to some kind of media whether it’s my cell phone, laptop or Xbox 360. Even when I'm in class, I usually have my laptop with me for notes and to check my email or if the class is exceptionally boring I will get on Instant Messenger and talk with my friends. When I'm at home I will always either be playing a video game or on my computer or both. Actually, video games are probably the media that I spend the most time with, especially since I work at GameStop, where I am surrounded by them constantly. Although even outside of work, I still play a fair amount of games myself.
To me, the word media is any form of information. Books, newspapers, cell phones, TV, movie theatres, even live plays and concerts are all forms of media as far as I see it. I'm not a big fan of most non digital media for some reason though. Reading books and magazines bore me, but if it’s a blog or an online article it’s somehow different. It could be because I enjoy electronics and as such my major is Information Systems. After college, I plan on working directly with digital media, so it’s important to me.
After hearing about the media deprivation project we are going to be doing, I honestly got a little scared. I'm really not sure how it will be possible for me not to use a phone to call someone, or turn on my computer to check emails and news. I think the biggest addiction about media today is the idea of always being connected to everything. No matter where you are in the world, you can watch a live feed of almost any TV show you want and talk to directly to anyone no matter where they are. I think this comforts people, I know it does me. Perhaps it’s an issue of not being alone, some primal wanting that people have to be around other people and all these new types of media make it possible for it to happen at all time. I think it will be interesting to study this idea and see.
http://www.bipolarnation.com/
3 comments:
Hey Chris, I liked your blog pretty much because I can relate to it A LOT. I'm a comp sci major so my life's embedded in technology and media. I'm also kinda worried about this media deprivation project. I've gone a day with out talking for a class, but I could still play video games or watch TV. I think this project will be very interesting and hard for many of us who grew up in a society filled with media. Great blog.
I definitely like your blog and the points you made are very valid. Especially with us being in the "information age", and the 21st century, media and communications are a big and constant part of our lives. We use it every day and as you said, some are so dependent on it that they probably cannot function everyday without having their PDA, Blackberry or some sort of device to commmunicate with another individual on them. It started with pagers and has significantly grown. I am also on the same page about telivision. I watch less of it now, and read news sites such as the International Herald Tribune and even CNN than watch regular telivision shows.
Blog number 2 Comment....
Chris, I like and support your argument. The point you made about seeing language everywhere you look, whether it is while watching television, playing video games is valid. It is obvious and represented with the growing pace of technology and the resources we have readily available and at our disposal nowadays such as computers and smart phones also that reading and writing has grown and evolved and will continue to evolve further into the 20th century.
The fact that you in a sense gave a timeline of oral culture to written culture, talked about the importance of heiroglyphics to the development of the alphabet and then writing I believe also helped to strengthen your argument.
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