#1

Morgan Russell
Media Memoir
January 25, 2010



The old fake-wood-sided television sat high on a shelf in the entryway of our home. On the rare occasssions it was turned on the picture was fuzzy and the golf channel and local news held little interest. I spent the majority of my childhood outside, since neither of my parents worked full time my days were filled with mini-adventures, nature-focused vacations and activies, leaving little room for television. As a child the single educational computer game I had was reserved for rainy days. Using a computer was not a part of my daily life until high school.
Growing up I read all the time, everything from short childrens books to the classics and the local paper. Specifically our local paper, my mother would sip her tea with the paper every morning so it was only natural that I read it too. I was almost never exposed to advertisements unless it was those in the paper which were mostly for local restaurants, small retailers and possibly ski areas.
As a child the lack of mass media influence in my life seemed normal, hardly any of my friends were heavily influcenced by media. However I eventually attended a boarding school with students from all over the world. Many of these students were from more urban and suburban areas and far more interested in media and popular culture than anyone from my small Vermont town.
For some time I found myself sucked into this consumption oriented and media dominated culture I had never previously experienced. I was concerned about celebrities I had never met, about purchasing the latest thing, and making sure I updated my facebook status, concerns that would have never crossed my mind before. I am grateful that this short phase of my life ended.
After a few years of this I suddenly realized that I rarely went hiking anymore, I had hardly been skiing all season, and hadn’t read a book outside of class in monthes. I realized that I had been so concerned with media and the messages sent through mass media that I was hardly doing any of the things I loved. This realization made me consider how media affected me, and how it affects and changes everyone arounds me.


The New York Times article looks at the mini-generation gaps formed by the increased rate of technological change. Commonly used technology has become so integrated in our everyday life that the changes can drastically alter childrens perceptions and expectations. For example young children now seem to be learning that distance is almost irrelevant to communication and that all communication should be practically instantaneous. I find it both scary and interesting to consider how much more we communicate through technology rather than face to face. I am not sure, but it seems there must eventually be some social or emotional effects from this lack of real connection during our communication.

I found the video very fascinating on many levels. To begin with I never have really understood how websites are created and seeing this prompted me to look into it. The video left me with a sense of unease at first so I watched it again. The idea of the machine using us is a scary thought which left me with a sense of impending doom. However as I thought about it more I realized that since we are the machine and we control the machine we have simply given each individual more power.