Blog 13 - Who Owns Media

I think that even though Reingold states that he only means to inform us about the future path we are taking, I think he sides more on the negative attachment the of new media definition. From my available understanding of my relationship to the media is that I am not quite up to par to the mainstream users of the media channels. However, I still portray the symptoms of lost connections when I am not always connected to the internet or have my mobile phone with me 24/7.

Last summer I went on a 3-day weekend camping trip in Bodega Bay. When my friends and I arrived at the site, I realized I forgot the most important thing, my cellphone! MY first reaction is panic and lost of connection to everyone! The funniest thing is that I didn't realize the people I was with at the moment because I wished I had my cellphone. This creation of an illusion of a lost connection has been created in our culture through the commodity of mobile phone and mobile internet. Afterwards, I forced myself to calm down, and join everyone at the camp. The trip came and gone faster than I wish it had. My friends and I told ghost stories during the night, built sand castles, buried each other in sand, swam, and really just BONDED! I had so much fun outside of what contains that mobile communication device that I have forgotten about instantly wanting to check my phone or if anyone texted me or updating my twitter about what I am doing. I simply had fun with those around me physically. This experience really made clear to me that one of my relationship to the media has some form of passiveness as well as remembering that media like mobile devices with internet connection, is not necessarily "needed" to connect with others. I have only forgotten the the old ways of social networking as these changes are occuring in media.

Another example of my relationship to the media concerns the fact that even with the availability for participatory interactions in web 2.0, I feel that my personality still prevails against intense participation in facebook updates, twitter, and youtube uploads about self. For example, I sometimes feel like I'm left out of my generation's fad in terms of what's in and what's not in terms of new interaction social network ideas like twitter and tumbler. I remember when facebook was in it's peak years and I made an account. Then I would try to copy what others had on their facebook page that I thought would make me look more interesting, extravert, etc. So I kept updating my status trying to be different, post images that were different, and portrayed myself as "unique" and a deep person. After awhile, I realized that keeping up with these things to show people who I am was ironically doing the opposite. I didn't care for what people thought of me. I thought that this was the thing to do, but I am a very lazy person in terms of trying to express myself to people online that I don't even know very well. I ask myself why I would bother trying to show these people who I am if I will never really interact with them in person even if we did go to the same high school before. Thus, my personality lacks interest in these social networking even when there's a lot of
participatory channels. Ultimately, with the changes in media, my relationship with the media will never be quite up to par to the mainstream users.