Kayla, 11
Media Consumption: 3-4 hours per day
Favorite Media/Technology: Discord & Nintendo Switch
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
I spend a lot of time with my family watching movies or playing video games. We usually watch animated movies because of my younger sister, or play games like Super Smash and Animal Crossing.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
I communicate with my friends after school using Discord to chat, since I don’t have any other forms of social media. We also all use technology for homework assignments.
What do you use media for?
I mainly use media to watch random YouTube. I mainly watch content that is related to my interests, like percussion and skateboarding. I also play Minecraft when I’m bored.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
I don’t like how media makes us have shorter attention spans and less present in our daily lives. We’ve also learned in school about how information online can be misleading and not-credible, which is scary. I do like how technology makes it easier to communicate and makes doing homework faster, because it allows me to type everything out.
What is one thing you want the people who create the media you like to watch/play/interact with to know?
I don’t like all the YouTube ads. I swear there used to only be one ad in the beginning of videos but now they pop up so often.
What media do you interact with the most?
I spend the majority of time on my laptop or iPad watching YouTube or listening to music.
Where do you get most of your information about what’s happening in the world (e.g., news, internet, parents, etc.)?
I get most of my information from peers or videos online. Whenever I tell my Dad about something I learned he immediately Googles it because he doesn’t trust my sources.
What media helps you stay busy/stay calm during challenging times?
Listening to music helps me to relax and unwind.
What lessons have you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
The pandemic taught me how to entertain myself. There were times when I was bored at home, so me and my sister had to get creative in how we would preoccupy ourselves in ways that didn’t only rely on our devices.
Have you learned anything about how you use media and technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
I struggled to adapt to doing school online at first. I even missed a few assignments because I didn’t know how to check when things were due. Now, I’m more comfortable with using technology and COVID has forced me to learn quickly.
Interviewed by: Amelia Weintraub, UCLA student