Arielle - 16
Arielle, 16
Media Consumption: ~9 hours (on weekday)
Favorite Media/Technology: Instagram and Tiktok
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
My family and I interact with technology everyday whether it is together watching television or on our phones alone. My parents and I communicate through text messages when we are not together, but also at home when we need something from each other. My mother uses Facebook as her social media tool so she sends me news and videos on there, but she doesn’t really understand Instagram or Snapchat. My dad doesn’t use his phone much when he is home, but instead is watching TV all the time. They get mad at me sometimes when I use my phone at the dinner table but if the phone is in front of me it is hard not to resist. My generation seems to be attached to our phones, and my parents don’t fully understand that is why I am addicted to a device. It is basically our whole world on one device.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
My peers and I interact with the media in many ways such as Instagram messages, iMessage, facetime, and Snapchat. We send each other pictures of food, animals, and ourselves and we like to send videos on Snapchat as well. We are constantly posting on Instagram and sending memes to one another throughout the day for laughs. When we are home, we facetime one another to talk instead of texting. When we are together, we go out to eat in order to post pictures of our food on social media. We also go out to take pictures with different clothing to get a photo that is “Instagram worthy”.
What do you use media for?
I use media to laugh with my friends, to make dance videos on Tik Tok and to communicate with one another via message/facetime. I also watch all my shows online now and tend to be drawn to my phone or computer during the day. I facetime my friends when I am bored and we just talk for hours while we do other things. It feels like we are hanging out, but we are not actually together. We send each other videos with filters that are funny or play games on Snapchat. We also make Tik Toks which is usually dance videos that we learn together and do at school or in public and post them.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
My favorite thing about social media is that I can interact with my friends whenever and wherever I want to. Having these social connections at all times is so great and I truly enjoy it. I think my least favorite thing about social media is the popularity contest of the amount of likes and comments someone has on Instagram. It can bring me down if I don’t get the same recognition as my friends.