On your blog this week, we are asking you to reflect on media use in your own home. We will give you more advice on this in the lecture and in the tutorials this week

 

Throughout the span of my life, media use in my house has constantly and rapidly evolved. Thinking back as far as I can go back, to preschool at the age of 5, my parents would allow me to play educational computer games. These games were on CD-ROM’s that needed to be inserted into the big brain box of the computer. I also listened to music personally on my portable CD player, while my parents would make use of their 6 disk changing CD player with surround sound in the house. In the car, we had the option of listening to CD, AM/FM Radio, as well as tapes. I often listened to my Barney the Dinosaur tapes and drove my parents crazy. I also watched TV on Saturday mornings. Back then, cable was a necessity and I would watch cartoons as well as Disney channel, waiting for my favorite shows to come on as listed on the TV guide including Lizzie McGuire and SpongeBob SquarePants.

I am the oldest child in my family, with 2 younger brothers. Chad who is 3 years younger than me, experienced his childhood in regards to media use exactly the same as I did. However, my other younger brother, Cody, is 11 years younger than me, and I definitely have noticed that his experience with media is drastically different than anything I experienced as a young child. In comparison to my early childhood experience, he has grown up in an immensely different technological era. By the time he was 4, he was gifted an iPad, and let me just say, that was crazy to me. As crazy as it sounds though, I think that it may have been very beneficial. The educational games, music, and TV that I used to access on different mediums were all accessible to him on his single screen of the iPad. He was able to maneuver his way around the device at a very early age. That just goes to show how adaptive humans are in their early stages, as sometimes my four-year-old brother at the time was showing my parents the capabilities of his iPad. I find that it allows for more efficient media use, but at the same time, it also sometimes made for too much media use. Among today’s generation of kids, as media use increases with its ease of access and convenience, it is often overused and taken advantage of, leading to unhealthy habits of overuse among us all.

As technology advances, it changes how we use media in our everyday lives. And as it grows, our habits also evolve. Newer generations are bound to live differently than older ones, which will entail both benefits and consequences. Although my generations habits during early childhood and the generation of my younger brothers differ, it is an advancement that needs to be well adjusted too, to live a well-balanced lifestyle.

On your blog,

Either: reflect on the conversation: what you learned about television history in the family home, and how you experienced the conversation. Feel free to include photographs if you have permission to do so.

Or: reflect on a television memory of your own practicing a form of auto-ethnography

 

I would say that the most memorable and entertaining television experience I have had would revolve around my discovery of the reality TV Series “The Bachelor” and all the culture that revolves around it. Bachelor nation was definitely like nothing I had ever seen before.

I had always been aware of the show and its name growing, but I was never really familiar with seeing the actual show, nor was I really exposed to it. I’m not really a fan of reality TV. During my second year of college at the University of Colorado Boulder, I moved into a house where I lived with 6 other sorority girls I had not previously known. Soon after moving in, I realized that all of my roommates would gather in the living room at 7 PM every Monday and start yelling at the TV. I was so confused and soon realized that they were watching what I thought was “just some reality TV show at the time”, so I never really took interest as I wasn’t a fan of reality TV at all.

Week after week, on Mondays at 7 PM, everyone in the household would stop whatever they were doing, and the living room would turn into a rowdy group of screaming girls that could be heard down the block. I thought to myself after 4 weeks of this regularly happening, to see what kind of reality TV it was that was that they were so invested in, and why they were passionate enough to sound like there was a dogfight in our living room for 2 hours every week. I sat down, completely expecting to walk back into my room unphased. Upon finishing my first episode I was hooked. I then too would clear my schedule under every circumstance on Monday nights, and it became my favorite day of the week to look forward to. I have no idea how the show got me to love Mondays, but I was so entertained. I was officially a fan of the show and a new member of the “Bachelor Nation”.

Since then, I have watched every single season of the franchise to date, including “The Bachelor”, “The Bachelorette”, “Bachelor in Paradise”, and “The Bachelor Winter Games”. And with every new season, I learn more and more about “The Bachelor culture” as well as become more invested and excited about it. Along with many of my friends, we make the show more interesting by partaking in “Bachelor drinking games” that revolve around lots and lots of wine. Whether someone in the show mentions an ex, or someone cries, or the bachelor looks off into the distance, the bottles empty quite quickly, and it is a fun time. Finales, call for themed sorority viewing parties that are split between the final two contestants and who we want to win. Some people may think it is ridiculous and corny, but it is defiantly a fun thing to be a part of if you love wine!

On your blog, write an introduction to your own experience of using a specific media form in a specific place. Focus on a story that illustrates something about this idea that interests you. An image can really help.

Tweet the link to your blog post with the hashtag #BCM241

In my experience, the first thing that comes to mind out of the ordinary when it comes to my exposure to a media form would be in the form of an event. Every summer where I am from in Southern California, young adults and teens gather at Huntington Beach, also known as “Surf City” for the annual Vans U.S. Open of Surfing event. I would say it is probably the biggest surf event in the United States where people gather.  For some, it is an opportunity to watch some of the worlds best surfers compete for titles, but for many, the competition is not the sole reason people love to attend the annual summer event. Personally, I find it to always be the highlight  of my summer break with the insanely fun and rowdy atmosphere it entails.

The overall experience the event stimulates leads me to why I believe it is a great form of media. As the show brand company “Vans” sponsors the event, they essentially are allowing people to experience the brand that they stand for, along with the personality they instill and the lifestyle that they promote. They make the event very engaging to the consumers that attend by putting on an array of activities and memorable branding themes including skate and BMX shows at the event, displaying street art in the style of the set up that they have, encouraging attendees to participate in games that lead to an immense amount of product giveaways, and even handing out free products just for the promotion within the similar market. That is defiantly my personal favorite aspect in addition to the already eventful and exciting event. Everyone who attends have very similar mentalities that lead to the free spirited, yet constructive event of the year as well as simultaneously providing consumers with an alternative media form.