My Relationship with Media

The definition of media is a channel of communication. In general, I would consider my use of media to be about average. I typically use media for entertainment and informative purposes. My typical access to media comes through the use of technology whether it is by a computer, smartphone, or television. It also comes in form of books for my classes, and I guess, at its most rudimentary form talking. My opinion of media is complicated. So let's start with how I use media.

As I said before I use media for entertainment and informative purposes. Focusing on the more technological forms of media, I use it for entertainment by using it for music and video games. I use media for informative purposes when I use media for school. Whether it is for a term paper, or finding information related to my next post for a media blog. I also use it for information when I look up fact and other bits of information when I come across something in life that I find interesting, whether it is about events in the news or just random specifications of military technology. I also get most of my information and news from media, like everyone else. I am typically informed by the news on the television and by articles that I find in my news app on my laptop which gathers articles from a variety of different sources online. In short my life is, in someway, involved with media.

Focusing just on the technological forms of media, I have very mixed opinions regarding media. On one side you have the fact that you now have access to all of this information in the world, and that can be very beneficial. On the other side all that access can be very bad, even harmful. Focusing on the benefits, we have the fact that information is at our finger tips. You can know what is going on in the world, not just in your neighborhood. That information in itself provides a very nice perspective at life, and how we live very differently from most of the people in the world. That raises very interesting ideas about what we should be doing in the world, help others or just focus on ourselves. You can understand how a computer works, or why our brains do the things they do. All of that is great. It can help us by making us more informed, knowledgeable, so we have more people who are informed and make better decisions than some people now. In a perfect world that is how we would use media and our access to correct and reliable information and communicating with each other. In reality what do we use it for? Snapchat, Facebook, false information the list goes on. Now do not get me wrong, some of those in a way, have their benefits. We use media for more entertainment than information and communication. That is a fact.

The fact is media is not being used to further our knowledge. It is very seldom that we ever use it for that purpose. We use media to listen for music, play video games, keeping our faces glued to our devices for entertainment. We are not communicating or absorbing information because we are not using it for that purpose. We are keeping our eyes on our screens. We are playing games, listening to music, posting on some social media, denying the other benefits of media. And even if people are not using media for entertainment we face the harsh reality that the information they are absorbing and then communicating may not be right. We face the reality that people put fake information in the media for us to absorb and share, so when it is all said and done, people do not have the right information, they have the wrong information. Now what is right and wrong information is all relative depending on the person, but nonetheless that is another problem. The way media is being used now outweighs the benefits that we could receive.

Media, to me, is a double-edged sword. It can help us, but the way we use media decides the impact it can have on us. So the way we currently use media to communicate, or rather create the illusion of communication, and to gather false information, I would say I am on "unfriendly" terms with media. The potential media has to help us, to communicate with each other and to provide information to us, gives us the possibility for a more beneficial use of media.

The link below is an article in the National Center for Biotechnology Information regarding the impact of media on children which parallels the same idea that media has the ability to be beneficial if used correctly, but the way it is used now, it is harmful.




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