My Relationship with Media

Relationship Status: It's Complicated

How can I define my relationship with media in simple terms, when the word "media" itself is too complex and vast for me to wrap my head around? It is defined as the main means of mass communication, but as basic as that seems, everything from reading my morning briefing, to scrolling through Instagram, to muting the ads that air on television, is classified as an interaction with media.
In order to see how frequently I interact with media on average, I payed particular attention today to advertisements I see, the time I spend on my social media accounts, and news I read or hear. What I realized about myself and the media around me is mind-boggling.

I noticed at least five advertisements in every single one of my classes. I heard them on NPR on the way home from school. They appeared as product placement in the shows I like and blared during commercial breaks. I even heard singers name-drooping brands in the music that I listened to today. This was the first time I have ever tried to be hyper-aware of advertisments and at the end of the day, it was exhausting. When are Coca-Cola and Supreme and Starbucks going to leave me alone? From this annoyance rose my realization that all of these hundreds of advertisements that I have noticed today have always been there, yelling at me to buy their insurance and drink their coffee, but I just have never noticed it before. Ads have so seamlessly slipped into my daily life, as I drive to school every morning and walk from class to class, but they are so common that I don't even realize they're there. It creeps me out when I think about what a huge part of my life they are.

And ads are only one type of media. On a daily basis, I also interact with at least three different forms of social media. I waste hours a day double-tapping and commenting when I could (and should) be doing homework. When I don't have social media for several days, I feel empty, a lesson I learned when I went camping over spring break. Since I was unable to text my friends and connect with my followers, I filled that time by refreshing my phone, checking to see if there was any service. Does this mean I am too dependent on my social media? If not too dependent, then I am certainly obsessed to some extent.

My dependence on the news, my constant need to stay connected through social media, and my perpetual exposure to advertisements is all in only one day's worth of media. So what can I say in general about my relationship with media? I am obsessed yet annoyed at the same time. Either way, both of those emotions are signs that I should interact a little less with media on a daily basis, whatever that means. Maybe I should just become a hermit.

You know you love me, xoxo,
Maevey