Media Binge

When I heard that we would be doing a media binge and fast I was completely mortified.  Anyone who knows me personally knows how much of my life surrounds media.  This doesn't mean that I completely ignore people and don't socialize but a lot of my passions surround media.  About a year ago, I created a YouTube channel.  I try to keep up with it during the school year but it is hard at times with school work and actual work.  That being said, I am also on YouTube frequently.  YouTube is like my form of television because I love the connectedness I feel with the people I follow but I also do it for inspiration as well.  When I watch popular videos I can note the techniques they use in editing that may be more appealing to users which can only benefit me.  I often search what kind of cameras people are using and I also embarrassingly search ways that I can gain more of a following.  Now that you kind of understand my obsession with Internet, I will go on to my experience.

To no surprise, the beginning was very easy for me.  Like I said, I am always online even when I should be studying and I am completely aware.  Having a real excuse as to why I needed to be on it was even better.  I often hear some of my friends not understanding why I go on YouTube so frequently because that is just not normal to them.  I appreciate social media so this part of the task was really easy.  I honestly did not even have to force myself to go on which is really sad that that is how addicted I am.  I know that over the years that social media has been more of a personal thing for me so I am on it more often that I was before.  Once I started to see that I could use my creativity towards something I care about, it made it that much easier to become addicted to it.  I would love to be able to be a full time YouTuber but that comes with hard work and dedication to the craft.  Editing is time consuming and I did have to edit during this time.  Editing requires a lot of researching beforehand when it comes to thumbnails, titles of videos, and what you tag in your video.  I also am always monitoring my analytics on YouTube as well as my adsense.  I would say I am one of the more extremes when it comes to media binging.

The fast was extremely difficult.  When I am bored, I always go to YouTube to watch new videos and see if my favorite YouTubers have posted.  I also enjoy watching podcasts online as well so that was something I could not do.  Studying has always been an issue for me and I often need to clear my head.  So, I will go towards something funny or silly like DIY slime videos on YouTube.  I am also really interested in comedy and comedians so when I was feeling overwhelmed I could not go on Netflix and watch my favorite comedian, John Mulaney.

Overall, anytime I do these sort of media fasts or binges I really can reflect on how much media shapes who I am and my life.  It may sound ridiculous but since a lot of what I wish to do in life is surrounded by media makes it evident that it is important to me.  I have a real strong appreciation for what media can do and I understand that it is consumes people too much at times.  I think as a society we always want to know everything and know what everyone is doing, so when we can't see that it bothers us.  This is really weird when you think about it but Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are all on you updating people about yourselves.  That is why we only follow certain people because we don't care about certain people's lives, we get to pick and chose.