Samara - 13
Samara, 13
Media Consumption: Weekdays - 1-2 hours per day, Weekends 2-3 hours per day.
Favorite Media: Instagram and YouTube
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
There are certain rules in my household when it comes to being responsible while using media platforms, specifically my parents gave me new rules when I received my cell phone right before I entered middle school. Besides the new rules, they had a conversation with me about how I would now have access to a lot more content, but that doesn’t mean I should be viewing it all and also about what I am deciding to post and have conversations about. They also mediate the social media accounts that I have, like Instagram, by following them to ensure I am being appropriate about what I post.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
We mainly communicate through Instagram, we comment on each other Instagram stories, DM each other post or tag each other on post/pictures and memes, or just DM each other to talk about other topics. Rarely do I text or call my friends through iMessage, I mainly use that to talk to my parents or other family. I feel like I can always connect with my friends through Instagram, so when it is not available to me I feel a bit disconnected. We also talk about you tubers videos that we watch, because we follow the same people.
What do you use media for?
I use the media to feel connected, talk to my friends, and look at their posts. I also follow social influencers in order to look at their posts. The people that I follow on Instagram are usually the same people that I follow and am subscribed to on YouTube. For example, I am part of the Royalty Squad, because I follow and am a fan of Queen Naija and watch all the videos she posts. The influencers that I like to follow are girls who share messages that are genuine and are not trying to act like something they are not, and they spread messages about self-love.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
My favorite thing about social media is that I can connect with my friends through it, we enjoy talking and sharing posts through social media apps. I think that it can also be used to spread and send many positive messages out to people. My least favorite thing about media is that people can feel like they need to be perfect and be similar to others, but i think that this also just depends on the type of people you follow.
INTERVIEWED BY:
DANIELA RODRIGUEZ
UCLA 4TH YEAR STUDENT