My Relationship to Media

In the modern day, it's certainly safe to say that media controls almost every aspect of life. From the constant need to check our various social media accounts to the constant streams of advertising which we have become used to, media often plays a bigger role than we ever realize. The constant flow of media has become so engraved into our everyday routines and lives that often times we fail to realize its constant presence.
Every teen has a different relationship to media, but many are consumed in it. I am no exception. I spend a lot of time on various social media networks, watching videos on YouTube, and clicking on random Buzzfeed articles. My relationship to media has both upsides and downsides, but one thing is for sure: it's constant.
There's a good side to my constant relationship to media. Social media networks have served as a way for me to connect with many different types of people, and make lots of friends across the country and across the world. These are the people who will talk to me when it seems that the rest of the world is ignoring me. The online community I'm in is a safe space filled with some of the kindest people I've come to know. From the friends I have in the United States to the friends I have in New Zealand, it's incredible what amazing people there across the world that I would have never found myself talking to were it not for social media.

This is my friend Sunny who I met through social media. 

Of course, with every upside comes a downside. Media has infiltrated my life in ways that I do not appreciate. Because of the constant stream of information and the continual flood of text messages and notifications from my favorite websites, I'm a huge procrastinator. Media creates an easy way to distract yourself from the stress in our lives, and that creates a lot of issues, especially when there are big pressing assignments that I absolutely have to get done. It seems when I'm most pressured for time, the amount of things that I want to click on drastically increases. Media serves as the greatest distraction that this generation has ever faced.
Overall, media is an amazing innovation. It allows us to meet so many people and have so many different experiences that have been absent in the past. The world is forever connected, and forever distracted.