Identity Through Media Use
You could definitely say media controls my life, but you wouldn’t necessarily be right.
My average day starts with me waking up before my alarm goes off and browsing twitter on my iPhone 6s until it does, then turning my macbook on and loading up some music as i get ready for the day, then as i start my morning travel i’ll listen to Spotify on my phone while browsing twitter, Instagram and Facebook to distract me from the long bus ride to uni. throughout the day ill keep up with friends using the Facebook messaging app and Snapchat, and constantly find myself checking Instagram and Twitter whenever my attention wavers. At night you can find me either playing PS4 or Xbox One, listening to a record (yeah I’m cool like that) and/or watching whatever the latest videos have shown up on Youtube or Netflix. Before checking my phone for whatever notifications i have one last time, before finally going to bed and starting the process all over again.
As i said you could say social media and the devices used to access them control my daily life but really you could say that about a lot of people. Where as i see myself as being different from the masses in the fact that i believe i take some of the control back.
Twitter is my news paper i only follow people that interest me and can deliver actual news. no click bait, no celebrity breakdowns, no bullshit and i will barely ever ‘tweet’ about anything, I am solely a consumer of twitter, not an active participant.
Over on Instagram, which is currently my favourite of the social media platforms and quickly becoming many others (Oldham, 2015), I follow more photographers and artists then people i know and only once in awhile post a photo i deem to be not total shit, but do hope to get much better with my presence as I find Instagram to be peaceful platform, it takes me to places i can’t go and it doesn’t have any drama or fighting forced upon you. Instagram is about the photo right in front you which you choose what its about and how it affects you, you don’t have to read the caption or take note of who posted it, it’s just their for you to look at and most of the time appreciate.
Media Platforms such as Youtube do change the game a bit as the channels i follow are purely for my own enjoyment, not to keep up with latest news or see what my friends are up to but to be entertained by people who create entertaining content. which is similar to how i use Netflix in a way i only really watch what I’m interested in, i don’t go out of my way to find a movie or show just because its available. Spotify i would say is self explanatory, i get to listen to the music i want to wherever i am without having to pay a fortune.
Meanwhile my gaming habits are a bit all over the place but i can say that there are two main reasons why i play video games.The first reason is because its an interactive story driven adventure that i will probably never be able to participate in myself, so its a method of taking myself out of reality and becoming immersed in another world all together. The second is because the game has multiplayer and i get to play online with friends, so it becomes more of a social medium for me then actual enjoyment of the game.
Finally Facebook, the king of kings when it comes to social media, is ,like many others , the one platform i somewhat despise, mostly because of the constant drama, superficial yearn of approval and hoards of shared posts that you don’t want to see (Hamburger, 2002) but it has once again become a necessity through the Facebook Messenger App. With the app i don’t need to give out my number to contact people i simply friend them through Facebook and any time i need to contact them i just use the app instead of going onto the website.
At the end of the day I still read books, i buy and constantly listen to vinyl records and i have a DSLR camera that i carry with me as much as possible. I’m not trying to say i’m hipster or old school i’m just trying saying even though i have my feet firmly planted in the online world social media has created, i still do things my way and don’t handover control to anyone.
Hamburger, E. (2014) Facebook’s friend problem. Retrieved from http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/16/5620300/facebooks-friend-problem
Oldham, J. (2015) Instagram: Becoming the World’s Most Popular Social Network. Retrieved from http://www.engagesciences.com/instagram-most-popular-social-network/
