Media In My Life

In comparison to my parents or even grandparents media has greatly changed my life. An example of this would be the traditional image I grew up with of my father at the dinning table in the morning drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, this would once be the most conventional image in the country however nowadays you're more likely to see people reading the news off their phone from Facebook or twitter while drinking some pretentious new variation of coffee from an international coffee brand like Starbucks. Through advertising and modern technology media has managed to distort the simplest of traditions in our society. 

My life personally is greatly effected by the media; not only do I study Media in school but I and most people around me use media sites like Facebook, twitter, google or various similar sites to communicate, answer frivolous queries or even just to check the time, this seems to be quite common as brands like apple have started releasing an apple watch so people can check their social networking sites as easily as reading the time.  Outside of school there are few things that don't involve media. I  generally take my smart phone with me everywhere and with devices like 3G this means I have access to Facebook or any other social networking site at anytime, this means I can speak to my friends at anytime. While this seems like an incredible thing, it makes it difficult to complete minor but essential tasks, be it homework, chores or dog walking it becomes harder and harder to turn off these devices. Even going to the theatre now, the moment the curtain falls for intermission almost everyone in the audience has their phone out and is checking Facebook, embarrassingly this included myself. This really shows how dependent or even addicted to technology my generation is.

However I don't think I could live without the aforementioned media 'essentials' let alone the older forms of media such as like radios or print produced items like newspapers; without these older forms we would have no understanding of what was going on in the world. Modern Media also has many advantages which greatly benefit us, an example of this would be campaigns to improve society, usually trying to achieve equality, with issues like racism, sexism and homophobia like the 'He for She' campaign, which has recently become extraordinary popular through sites like Facebook, Twitter and youtube where people can share videos so everyone they interact with on these applications can also see it and spread awareness. So despite the issues media causes in my life I am extremely grateful that it is helping each generation become less ignorant than the last.

Also these modern versions of traditions aren't necessarily bad; by reading the news on our phone or tablets we save an incredible amount of paper and countless trees.

There is a great deal of regulation in modern media, monitoring sex, violence, swearing and making sure that everything labelled as news at least partially accurate, although though they are unable to prevent a great deal of misrepresentation in the media. However on sites like Twitter there is little to no regulation allowing people to say whatever they like about anyone, this allows severe cyber bullying to take place.

To Conclude, as whole I truly love media, I can't imagine not being able to talk to my friends outside of school however there are many faults and issues in modern media such as lack of regulation on social media or misrepresentation in the press. Although modern media has its many advantages, it helps friends keep in contact, it raises awareness about important cultural issues. I believe that sites like facebook and twitter are incredible inventions that are sometimes spoiled by people with bad intentions and that small comforts in life like television or newspaper are incredible.