Media Autobiography

My fifth birthday party was themed Beauty and the Beast, just like the classic Disney movie. I mostly remember the theme, which was tangible through little waxy paper cups and plates with scenes from the movie plastered on the outside. My other faint memory of that day, is of a plastic mirror with a button that, when provoked, would twinkle magical noises from the movie. Nothing could have been more perfect, it was my favorite movie, along with the other slew of Disney princess cartoons. But that’s how my life was as a child, my media interests spilled into all aspects of my life.

The timeline as a child is a little fuzzy, but I never felt restricted by my parents. I grew up knowing other kids who weren’t allowed to watch TV on the weekdays, or they didn’t have cable. To those children, I always felt superior. I could chat up the best of them with my knowledge of television shows that were current for my peers and I at any age. Whether it was trash talking Barney in kindergarten, which I was mostly lying through my teeth about because I still had full intentions of going home afterwards, sitting on the carpet and eating my apple slices while singing along with all his catchy tunes. Or, could discussing how crazy and childish “Blues Clues” was with my entire fourth grade class as we put up our chairs on our desks and prepared to go home for the evening. I’ve always made television a priority in my life, but nothing that completely controlled it either. My tastes changed through the years, but nickelodeon was constantly a staple in my media diet. When I was clever enough to convince my mom of some false ailment, or she was generous enough to offer me a mental health day I would lay in my parents bed, snuggled under the covers watching television. I caught all the episodes of “Little Bear”, “Franklin”, and “Gullah Gullah Island”.

As I became older my preferences graduated to shows like “The Golden Girls” and “Designing Women” on Lifetime. And I definitely broke into the MTV scene before my average classmate because I had an older sister by four years, who would insist on watching Real World, much to my dismay. Eventually I became an addict myself. Television media served as a classroom as well. I learned many things about those mysterious young adults on MTV who seemed so perfect and mature and cool. They embodied what I wanted to become.

While television was the most important form of media while I grew up, the computer was also very significant to my family and I. We have had a computer for as long as I can remember. Some of my memories with our giant box of technology include me in diapers. I played some computer games, but it wasn’t till I was around 12 that I got sucked into the phenomenon of The Sims. It is a simulator game in which you create one sim, or a family of sims. I played insistently, and probably to an extent that was harmful to the development of other extra curricular activities. This sims phase simmered down some, but lasted throughout high school.

Books have probably always been on the back burner in my life. It took me a while to actually get strong at reading. There is one memory I have of my grandmother sending Hooked on Phonics for me in the second grade because I still had not grasped the concept of reading. My mother promptly sent them back, either more for the fear of being indebted to her own mother or from embarrassment. Regardless, I did learn to read! And today, I enjoy it greatly. I know my mother’s favorite child hood memories of her and I include that twilight before bed, when she would read me the classics, like the Bernstein Bears, or Babar, or Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Today, media dictates a lot of my day-to-day activities. I incessantly check facebook, and e-mail. I also get all of my news from the internet. I frequent the blog of Perez Hilton, which satiates my need for celebrity gossip. I am also an avid reader of the blog Post Secret. The creator of that site puts up new secrets every Sunday that people send in on postcards from all over the country every week. I sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation for Sunday to come. Television is important, and was very much so throughout high school. But since I have been in college, television has taken the back seat. It used to be my favorite form of stimulation, but I have moved on to human interaction, which in turn has made me like myself more. Although, when I am at home in Chicago, I am much more liable to sit mindlessly in front of the television until the cows come home. I am, however, very thankful for inventions such as Tivo and DVR, which has made the media of television much more enjoyable. I have made a subconscious pact with myself to not let media dictate my entire life, but as technology advances and our world becomes smaller and smaller through communication devices, such as the internet, I foresee that pact becoming very difficult to maintain.