Stefano, 18

Media Consumption: Every day for approximately 5 to 10 hours per day

Favorite Media/Technology: Instagram

How do you and your family interact with media/technology?

My parents don’t really use social media unless it’s for their business. However, I do enjoy sending videos through Instagram or TikTok back and forth with my siblings.

How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?

I interact in the same way that I do with my siblings, we all enjoy randomly sending each other videos. We see it as a way of keeping up with things that we choose to follow on social media. We also use Discord to voice call when we have free time and want to play video games together.

What do you use media for?

I mainly use media to keep up with the lives of the people that I’ve followed. I also follow soccer and Formula 1 to keep myself updated. I’ll occasionally see highlights of other sports, but I don’t care as much about them.

What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?

My favorite aspect about media is the possibility of discovering something new that I like and seeing if I can add it to my day-to-day life. I also really love just being able to see something, note to myself “hey, that’s cool,” and then be able to move on. My least favorite aspect would be the rabbit holes that you can go down (on all platforms but especially YouTube). With TikTok, if you’re just scrolling through your For You page, it has gotten to the point where the videos are displaying so much randomness that it really shows the change in people’s attention span. It’s steering away from what I like (a good storytelling video), and it’s changing to just very short, attention grabbing visuals designed to maximize views.

What is one thing you want the people who create the media you like to watch/play/interact with to know?

I remember reading that, from day 1, even Mark Zuckerberg didn’t allow his kids to use social media. Regardless of whether that’s still true to this day, we still choose to scroll through media on our devices despite knowing how detrimental it can be. I would want the creators to know that we shouldn’t be scrolling through their content but we still are.

What media do you interact with the most?

I interact with Instagram the most.

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 Instagram.

What media helps you stay busy/stay calm during challenging times?

Instagram helps me stay busy/stay calm during challenging times.

What lessons have you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?

I learned that nothing beats human connections. It was so easy to deprive myself of those connections and just be on my computer/phone during the pandemic, and after realizing that, I started to wonder why wasn’t I outside playing soccer? It was getting to the point where I was using the stay-at-home order as an excuse to never go outside; I wouldn’t even want to go to the store with my parents. It challenged me to ask myself why I couldn’t just go outside and go for a walk. Overall, the pandemic really helped me realize that I was overusing technology.

Have you learned anything about how you use media and technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?

During the pandemic, I was using technology at an extreme level because of school. It was getting to the point where I couldn’t wait until I could finish my work and be able to get away from staring at a screen. Now, I really try to prioritize going outside and moving my body over being on my computer/phone.

Interviewed by: Kevin Nguyen, UCLA student