Roxana, 16
Media consumption: Approximately 4 hours per day
Favorite Media/Technology: Instagram
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
My family interacts with technology regularly, the whole family has the social media platform Instagram, and we all post stories and photos regularly and there aren’t really any restrictions as long as there’s nothing bad I am hiding, but at the same time both my parents follow me on Instagram so they know what I’m up to and I’ve never really hidden anything bad so I feel like I have much their trust having social media.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
Me and my friends are on social media a lot, we use Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok regularly to post videos, photos, or just chat and see what other people are up to. Pretty much everyone has some form of social media so it’s easy to keep it touch.
What do you use media for?
I mostly use media to post photos and to keep in touch. I like to post videos or stories to memorialize the moment or certain places I went with certain people or specific events. Partly I feel like I do this to show things I’m involved in or have planned.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
Honestly, my least favorite thing about social media is how downgrading it can be on your mental health. I know I can easily be caught in the current of TikTok or Instagram and end up scrolling for hours and then realizing that I wasted my time on nothing. But like at the same time I know many adults talk about this, but honestly it is kind of true, but when you’re on social media, you easily find yourself comparing yourself to like others on the Internet and what they’re up to or how they look like and certain items they own.
What is one thing you want the people who create the media you like to watch/play/interact with to know?
One thing that I would want someone who created the media is to know how dangerous Snapchat is. At my school we had a lecture of a kid’s mom whose son went through I think fentanyl poisoning from some dealer on Snapchat. I know and I would like anyone reading this to know I don’t do drugs or alcohol or anything but it’s scary to think the developers of this may know what’s going on but don’t wanna fix anything about it. But like it’s pretty scary media platforms can change people’s lives and things like that.
What media do you interact with the most?
The media I interact with the most is Instagram. I like to have a profile up to show what I’m doing and places I’m going to.
Where do you get most of your information about what’s happening in the world (e.g., news, internet, parents, etc.)?
Most of the information I get about what is happening in the world is from either from the radio, parents, friends, news, school, or Instagram.
What media helps you stay busy/stay calm during challenging times?
Honestly, Instagram is probably the social media platform that keeps me busy during challenging times because I can watch something for a bit or cruise around on people profile to see what they’ve recently posted.
What lessons have you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
When COVID-19 happened I was in seventh grade so I feel like the lessons that I learned coming out of it was that I had to become more self-aware and I was maturing and becoming into a woman so I had to always be aware of my surroundings what I would say, how I would appear to other people.
Have you learned anything about how you use media and technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
So, during COVID-19 I used social media a lot to connect with people but once I came back to school, I kept using social media as much but then over time my usage of it declined a bit. Now I am a sophomore in high school and I really like lowered my usage of Snapchat and TikTok. I mean I’m still on them a lot, but I don’t really focus my time on it as much as I used to. But I have realized that I use social media a lot when I’m in my house by myself or when I’m honestly pretty bored and have nothing better to do. Which then relates back to the question of my use on social media it feels like I’m mostly on social media when I don’t have anything to do or anyone to hang out with or when I’m mostly bored, which parallels how I felt during COVID-19.
Interviewed by: Pedram Bazargani, UCLA student