Media 160 Blog #1
Currently, my relationship with media today is a very reliant one. I depend on numerous websites in order to communicate with friends and family, to complete my school assignments, to find jobs, look at the weather, entertainment and music, and much more. At this point in my life, it is hard to imagine a lifestyle without these easily accessible forms of media on the Internet.
One specific site that I use on a frequent basis (along with many other people) is Face book. Being that I went to an international high school in Amsterdam, my friends are now spread all across the globe. Face book provides an extremely efficient way to communicate with these friends via messages, images, online chatting, etc. My parents still live in Europe, so it is a very easy way to communicate with them as well. The user-generated content makes the site so successful, as the user creates their own accounts, pictures, and decides what to display and not display.
Another site I use every day is Pandora.com. This site allows me to listen to an endless playlist of songs from a genre of my choice. By typing in my genre or artist of choice, I am communicating with the site what music is popular amongst my demographic. Furthermore, they are communicating with me via advertisements on the page, and via a commercial every 10 songs or so.
I am aware that I am constantly bombarded with hundreds of forms of media each day. This includes print ads on the subways, billboards, buses, etc, all television and commercials, radio, Internet, etc. Our society is based on a system of mass communication, where personal contact is becoming less of a necessity. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up for question.
