A Reflection

Throughout this ongoing assignment, and this class, I have learned a lot about media and my experiences with it in the past and present.

I consume a borderline insane amount of media on a daily basis. From the point I wake up, I go on my phone to check Snapchat and Instagram, and then I go on it to watch TV, communicate with people, and do other often useless things on my phone. On average in the past week I have spent 6 hours and 36 minutes on my phone per day, and that’s 13% less than last week. That daily average will realistically only go up during the summer. This constant media makes me procrastinate way too much, makes me get distracted very easily, makes me feel like I need constant stimulation, and makes my work quality a lot lower than what I know I am capable of.

Being aware of this high, unhealthy level of media consumption has not affected my use of it at all throughout this semester because for some reason I managed to trick my brain into thinking that it was no big deal. But, in fact, it is turning out to be a huge deal. This will be my worst semester by far in terms of time management and work ethic directly because of how much time I spend immersed in media. I am feeling the effects of this especially hard right now at the end of the year because this will be the first semester that I have ever had bad grades on my report card or grades that I am very disappointed in. I am likely going to have 3 C’s, 2 B’s, and 3 A’s, and needless to say I am beyond upset with myself for letting it get to this point. I think that now that I see the effects of my media consumption on my future, and now that I have ways of looking deeper in to media thanks to this class, that I will actually better myself over the summer and for the rest of my highschool career.

I hope to get to a point over the summer where I still feel connected to my peers and the social media I have come to love, but also where I still feel like putting down my phone isn’t going to be the most boring thing in the world. I am going to try to do this by logging each day what I got done while not on my phone/consuming media and while on my phone/consuming media. I hope that that will help put things into perspective for me yet again. I also think that keeping myself busy with summer reading, escersize, hanging out with friends, and my art will get me to remember to enjoy more things in life off my phone.

It is so important to be able to sit back and review your interactions with media to better your future self and make your present self much more healthy and educated on what you are letting influence your thoughts. I feel very lucky to be given the opportunity through HISP to have this class to teach me that and I genuinely wish that I had better taken advantage of it. From what I did participate fully in, though, I feel like I have learned a lot about the media in my everyday life and in others' lives and how it affects so much of what we do and think which to me is so crazy how easily influenced we are by something many of us do not understand. I am not trying to kiss up to Mr. Starace (presumably the only one reading this) by talking about how much this effected me, I genuinely think that the harsh reality of disappointing myself grade wise this semester will push me to use what we have learned in this class to better myself, and my future college goals.

Here’s to the media in my life, it’s effects on me, and my newfound understanding of how to properly understand it which will help me grow into a more responsible young adult.

( Apple cider is pictured, not alcohol :) )