The Media & Me

My life is consumed by media.

It doesn't help that I'm obsessed with watching the news (usually Fox News, as they keep it pretty un-liberal. But we'll get into that later.) Even as I'm writing this, I have the news on. If I hear an anchor's name before they're shown on the screen, I know who they are. I can even identify their voice. Kind of sad, I know. But hey - at least I'm keeping up with current events and I know what's going on in the world.

As I said before, my days are full of interaction with the media. As soon as I wake up, I turn on the news. I watch Fox & Friends every morning that I'm up early. I watch The View every chance I get. I'm not sure if you can categorize The View as actual "news," but it has become a source of information for many people as well as a hot topic itself in the media. I love watching Elisabeth Hasselbeck defend her conservative views against her liberal co-hosts. As I'm driving to class, I turn on the radio. I listen to the morning shows on the various stations. In my photojournalism class we rely heavily on computers; in fact, we submit all of our assignments online. My teachers expect us to check our email for important messages from them. At the U of A, we even sign up for classes completely online. Basically, if you're out of the technology loop, you're up the creek without a paddle.

When I'm not busy at work, I surf the Internet, usually visiting MSNBC.com at least 10 times during my workday (which is only about 4 hours long, mind you.) But my obsession with MSNBC.com can only be thwarted by one other website: Facebook.

Facebook is like a drug for many young people. For some, it borders on unhealthy. If you think I'm being facetious, you're either a) Amish or b) old. As we speak, I have the social networking site minimized on my toolbar, and I've been checking it every few minutes. Thanks to today's smart phones, I can get on the website anywhere, anytime. It's really, really sad how often I check Facebook. But one of the coolest things about Facebook is the fact that I can keep up with friends who have moved away or childhood friends I haven't seen in years. I can see what they're majoring in, if they have a girlfriend/boyfriend and what they did over the weekend. If someone gets engaged, it's updated on the news feed. In case you didn't see the news feed, they can update their status to read: I'M ENGAGED!!! or something to that effect. It will literally look like this: Tara is ENGAGED!!! (3 seconds ago.) Facebook is revolutionizing the way young people communicate, in my opinion. Whether it's for the better or worse, I have yet to decide.

Think about your own day. How many times a day do you interact with the media? It's surprising, isn't it?