Media can be confidently called an inalienable part of human life, influencing their perception of surroundings, shaping their opinions, and setting interests, wishes, and goals. Indeed, we rarely pay attention to how slowly but steadily media integrates and controls our routine. Being constantly in the background of all humans’ histories, media becomes so tempting, colorful, and oftentimes addictive. However, the negative sides of media spread are outstandingly small compared to the profits it brings to humans. From my perspective, humans can always take control of media and develop every branch of it smartly and beneficially. Due to the media, we got incredible opportunities and abilities to shorten distances using chats, keep in touch, and be aware of modern political and economic situations all over the world. People with disabilities, with the help of media, can reduce the communication gap with peers and feel more confident, needed, and happy. Some humans suffer from loneliness and use media to find friends, and family, and have company. Media brings me pleasant memories from childhood, teenage, and adult ages, and in this essay, I want to disclose the impact of media on my development and life.
My childhood memories connected with media start at the kitchen of my parent’s house, where the radio has always been opening the day. My parents were listening to news reports while dressing up for the working day. As a child, I have always imagined the radio box to be a real man hiding behind it. The speaker seemed to me enormously talented because he could change the timbres of his voice, talk non-stop, sing, and do many incredible things. When my parents switched between the channels, I was sure they asked the radioman to talk to them about something else, and the voice inside the box always had enough themes to broadcast. I imagined him as a tiny man similar in size to the radio box with a big mouth and white teeth, and I was looking forward to our daily meetings. Looking back, I can say radio has made me more creative and friendly.
The radio is a unique invention in human history as it was one of the first that united people, allowed us to get to know music better, and stay up-to-date daily without making any efforts. Interestingly, some countries call the radio creator different names. For instance, in the United States, people learn at schools that the radio inventor is Guglielmo Marconi. It is believed to be Reginald Fessenden in Canada, and in Russia, people claim the creator was Alexander Popov. In my teenage age, I found this information attractive as it showed the attitude of various nations towards the first media creation. Radio united and connected people, and the respect and honor for such incredible creation they preferred to give to their citizens.
Apart from morning radio routines, we watched TV in my family. Parents enjoyed evening reportages of news, and I was always looking forward to some children’s content. Nevertheless, when I grew up a bit, I liked watching the news together with them and observing my mother and father’s dispute about some social and political issues. Now I understand that my father was of a more conservative opinion, and my mother took the liberal side. Their disputes never led to quarrels or fights; on the contrary, they used evening news discussion as a live game that raised their adrenaline and was some sort of amusement. During the financial crisis in 2008, I remember the agiotage and worry from people, and back then, media was all in one: positive and negative, the one that brings news and disappoints at the same time. Media was a little friend, an enemy, and it was hard to live without it a day.
My parents also used social media when the latter appeared, such as Twitter and Facebook. I remember how my mother got very excited about the idea of finding all her classmates and groupmates from school and university and added everyone she could find to her friend list. I was around nine, and using social media was limited for me; however, I could use Internet recourses for studies and entertainment. Back then, the Internet and computers were perceived as something innovative but, at the same time, as something that should be limited and restricted for children. Still, for some years, I independently used the Internet for various purposes. My parents, while using the Internet, also clicked on different notifications from news sites because of their will to get to know more new information. Media has been multi-faced for me during my school ages and has taught me to be more flexible, fast, efficient, and attentive.
The teachers at school also integrated media into our studies by giving us tasks to do a PowerPoint presentation to make videos. One of the teachers motivated me to read and watch more about history. Later, I realized how essential history lessons are for life: some actions happening in the past have a tendency to repeat. The history teacher showed us gripping movies about the Civil War and the Crusades. However, the usage of Internet recourses during the lessons was prohibited by every teacher. They restricted us from cellphone usage to help focus our attention on one major topic. They also tried teaching us to make an effort in data searching so we do not get used to getting easy and fast answers from the Internet. Indeed, the speed of the Internet is fast, and oftentimes students can use the unlimited base of information and receive any answers to the questions they want. This can harm critical thinking and the development of personal thoughts and ideas. School authorities also integrated online platforms for students and parents to cooperate better and faster. This made all the student performance clear and see-through, helped some peers interact with teachers, and simplified the process of sending finished assignments.
As I was growing up, the Internet became my best friend in data gathering, communication, and finding locations with the help of online maps. I can say I was born in the century of information technologies, and they have become an inalienable part of me. Over time, I have noticed that media can influence us majorly and not follow various flows of it; people should develop critical thinking. The ability to judge several opinions before forming yours is essential for every human, and I am still learning to do it better. It is hard to go against common tendencies, views, opinions, and rules that are delivered to us via media. However, creative people with a fresh look at life bring us new trends, orientations, and various changes in general. Therefore, to become a person like that, we should always grow and develop our abilities and critical thinking.
Media has had a great impact on my everyday life and shaped me as an attentive, efficient, and creative person. The memories from my childhood connected with media warmed my heart as back then, radio and TV evenings with the family united us in a certain way and made us happier. Internet and social media simplify communication with other people, the process of studying, and the information found. Media brought comfort, speed, and entertainment in our life, and developed addictions, violence, and graphic language all over Internet pages are the consequences of humans’ actions. It is hard to limit the information machine, but humans should try to do that and focus on the positive aspects of media in our everyday life. I believe the opportunities we have with media are enormous, and people should be proud of being born in such a wide technology development period. Due to the media, people can learn a foreign language by cooperating with native speakers using mutual sites. Media develops and brings us fresh information daily, lets us be close to the ones that are far away, and saves our time by being multi-functional.
Media has helped my generation to become fast, efficient, and productive. It turned out to be a decent ally, especially for those who can use media properly. For people who overuse media or become addicted to it, media might bring negative effects such as gaining weight, vision issues, and misfocus on various items at the same time. I believe a person can learn to cooperate with media to take out from these interrelations the best outcomes and profits. That is why I do not use TikTok, as it uses all the recourses of attention and focus and represents extra amusement for the young generation. Overusing any source of entertainment can end up with negative effects, and it is important to learn to limit yourself from something that brings constant joy and happiness. I think I take the most benefit from media usage, and due to it, I became more attentive, and creative and learned to set up restrictions for myself.