Nicolas, 17
Media Consumption: Around 7 hours a day
Favorite Media/ Technology: Instagram
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
My parents use technology for work but don’t really use social media. My mom uses instagram and WhatsApp to keep in touch with her family and friends, but never posts anything. My dad only uses LinkedIn.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
My friends and I send each other posts and talk about them- they’re usually pretty relevant. We also use it to just laugh and escape reality.
What do you use media for?
To kill time or when I’m in class and have nothing to do, even though I probably do have better
things to do.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
How much time it consumes, I don’t care about anything else honestly, some people have problems with body image, but personally that motivates me! The main issue to me is how much time it kills. I'll check my phone and see those weekly reports of screen time and I’ll see 7 hours a day and I’m like ‘Dude are you kidding me?!?’ The frustrating thing is that I’m genuinely casually making my life worse by doing this and I’m completely accepting it.
What is one thing you want the people who create the media you like to watch/play/interact with to know?
It shouldn’t be an algorithm that gives people what they want, because when people get stuck in bubbles of their own thoughts and ideas they need to step outside those bubbles. Try to give people better content, instead of garbage. One in every four videos could be interesting or educational, but not anything boring. Make it engaging.
What media do you interact with the most?
Up until last year it was a mix of video games - because I still had time - and TikTok. Now this year, as school has come up, I don’t have time for video games — so they’re out of the equation — unless I have time to kill in class. Otherwise it was TikTok, which I have now deleted, so then I moved to Instagram but also deleted it, and now I’m onto whatever Snapchat has. I also deleted YouTube, because I was going down a rabbit hole watching shorts, but that was really inconvenient because I need to be able to watch videos for school. So now each platform is just degrading from bad to worse.
Where do you get most of your information about what’s happening in the world (e.g., news, internet, parents, etc.)?
I’ll see news articles on Snapchat, or posts on Instagram about important events. When my dad watches the news I’ll sometimes watch with him. I’ll also have discussions with my family about major events that are going on around the world.
What media helps you stay busy/stay calm during challenging times?
Music is definitely my go to. Anytime I just need to get out of my head I put my headphones in and try to just focus on the music.
What lessons have you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
To have perseverance. It’s important to keep going and things will get better over time.
Have you learned anything about how you use media and technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
The main thing is that during hard times, I like to escape reality and use the media to do so, but it's usually detrimental. Every week I’m not doing that good on sleep, or I’m stressed because I have a test coming up, but if I wasn’t spending that much time on my phone, not only would I be getting sleep, but I would be studying good, genuinely be happy, and comfortable and fulfilled. It has really put it into perspective for me.
Interviewed by: Anaïs Eichner, UCLA student