What Media Is (to me)

The way I see it, media has been, and will probably always remain to be, an immensely powerful outlet for expression and communication. And it wouldn't be that way if we did not take into consideration the way we actually use and interact with media—both individually and as a society. And with the addition of more advanced technology, the power and impact media has on society has only continued to soar. If you were to just take a step back every so often, perhaps take an hour or so to disconnect yourself entirely from "the grid," and observe things like: the advertisements around you, and the way a person walking by you might be interacting with their gadgets, it would be difficult not to see both how extraordinary, and how silly media can be now a days. I believe the trick is to detach oneself completely from society for that particular moment—especially the want, need and desire to socialize (and this could be rather difficult because it's sort of in the nature of people and a society to interact).

As for me, I am an observer. I love to observe. And I'm not talking about passively observing to take in visual stimuli, or observing because I am nosy and want to know the who, what, when, wheres of everything. I literally observe, re-observe, continue to observe, think... think again... rethink... analyze... observe again and think at the same time.. and so on. The people who know me well in my life know this about me, and sometimes they don't even get it—why observation drives my mind so. This obsessiveness of mine to be so observant, by the way, probably stems from my introverted nature (or so I would theorize). But it just feels as though there's an art to observing, and when one more pensively observes they will see and realize so much more. And for me, one of the most interesting things to observe is the media. Facebook, news outlets, Instagram, Youtube, and whatever else I may venture to check out or use on the occasion.

Now what significance does any of those two obvious facts about media, and my observational skills, bear for this blog? Simply put: observing is how I usually interact with media, and my observations have drove me to become an aspiring media maker. I would say at least six out of ten times, I see something that I don't like. That certainly does not make it invalid. But I often feel that with such powerful mediums out there, many with the invaluable ability to engender awareness and promote change, we could spare some of the sloth memes (where did those even come from?), deceitful propaganda and misleading information. I have a vision for media to solve problems to the best of its abilities—NOT create them. Specifically, I envision media to be an advocate for social justice and urban reform because that's the type of work I would like to do eventually—using media as my outlet. That is why I have a concentration in documentary and TV production. I think it would be wonderful, considering the direction some of our media outlets are going (ex: Music), for people to be more conscious consumers (:

CHECK IT: Just something interesting to consider!