Seriously, what would we do without the media? This medium is so beneficial and I’m so lucky to be growing up with it. I think it’s important to broaden the understanding of the different media outlets there are. For example, this week something that really stuck with me was the screening Out of Print, which talked about the declining habit of taking in information in a physically written form like books and newspapers. It talked about the transition that is expected of consumer intake from books and paper mediums to all online. This rings very true to me because I can see the change and remember when I personally shifted my focus less on paper and more on screen, not on purpose but times required me to do so, along with everyone else. Media outlets like books and papers are secondary compared to articles on your phone and media apps. Television, computors, and smartphones are also forms of how we consume media these days. In some ways this can be really bad– information can be spread falsely, everything is basically online for anyone to see and is quick to be received. This can promote laziness in consumers, therefore continuing the cycle of people taking the easy way out and opting for the online version of media. 

This got me thinking about how I consume and why I consume the way I do. I really do love books, the way they smell, how each author presents a different style, and the history of them. I enjoy reading, I always have and I always will. However in middle school, we had this system called “Reading Counts” that we had to follow which pretty much ruined my reading habits for the next 4 or 5 years. We were forced to read a certain number of books, worth a certain amount of points, and at whatever level we tested for. It makes sense of course and I’m sure many people had a system like that, but man that was garbage! It forced students who enjoyed reading as a hobby, and turned it into an assignment worth a big portion of our grade. You may be thinking well Molly, if you liked reading, why was it such an issue for you to do that? Because I was FORCED. When someone takes one of your favorite hobbies, for example watching movies. Now I don’t mean just watching them I mean, taking a deep dive into the directors intentions, the lighting, camera angles and what they mean, etc., and then decided to put you through a series of tests to see what movies you’d be able to comprehend, then give you a list of around 10 you’d be able to pick from, and you’d have to fill out logs and take quizzes on them every week. You would quickly not want to watch movies anymore, and I guarantee that. 

I’ve grown out of my hatred of Reading Counts and have come to terms with it, and I choose to look at that as character development. It did force me to do something I didn’t want to do which is nice but, not when it ruins your hobbies. And I see situations like this (not exactly the same) that can turn people away from their good habits when they are forced to do so for a grade. Another problem with this is it gives people the option to half-ass their reading, further promoting comprehension issues and retaining true information. 

Culture also has a big role in the consumption of information and how we consume. Culture is fluid, and in my opinion the perfect media format for that is the internet. It is a direct reflection of our current reality and trends, so it is completely understandable that most people prefer online forms of media. I am one of those people in some areas of my life, I like doing my homework and writing online rather than writing it out by hand sometimes, and I love social media for getting incontact with people quickly and all of the constant inspiration. As culture changes we should be able to change with it, and that means accepting the new mediums we have today like social media and the internet. Do you think that we as a society are adapting well from old ways like print to the more accessible option of online?