Angel, 17
Media Consumption: a few hours during weekends (phones not allowed in her boarding school)
Favorite Media/Technology: Weibo (a Chinese version of Instagram/Twitter) and Bilibili (a website like YouTube)
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
I mainly use media for communication and entertainment. My mother doesn’t use digital media very much, but my father likes to surf the internet whenever he’s free. They regulate my time on media use because I have an approaching college entrance exam.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
We often use social media to chat with each other and share our lives when we can’t meet in person. Many of us also make online friends through social media. There are also a lot of students spending much time on video games.
What do you use media for?
I like using social media to connect with others and read news. I can follow news of my idols on social media and interact with people in the same fandom. I also watch funny and interesting videos for entertainment. Sometimes I make posts to share memorable things in my life with others. I talk with friends or send posts in a private account to deal with negative emotions sometimes as well.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
My favorite thing about media is that it lets me to be connected to others and follow things of my interest online.
What is one thing you want the people who create the media you like to watch/play/interact with to know?
I like it very much. It will be better if there can be less disturbing information such as distasteful ads.
What media do you interact with the most?
Weibo and Bilibili. (basically Chinese version of Instagram/Twitter and YouTube)
Where do you get most of your information about what’s happening in the world (e.g., news, internet, parents, etc.)?
Through the internet. I mainly read various kind of news on Weibo.
What media helps you stay busy/stay calm during challenging times?
Media that most people use for texting. I talk with my friends to stay calm during challenging times. They make me feel that I’m not alone.
What lessons have you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
There’s a lot of rumors on the internet during the pandemic. Lots of people were troubled by those disturbing information, because they didn’t know which source they should believe in. Media is a main way for us to know what’s happening out there.
Have you learned anything about how you use media and technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging times?
The pandemic makes a lot of activities online, for example, we had online classes for a long time. Personally, I like staying home and having access to all digital devices. I was able to use media more, and I could chat with my friends whenever there’s some new changes regarding the pandemic and school policies. However, it may be more effective to have classes in person for learning. Though I don’t want to admit it, sometimes digital media is a distraction to our study.
Interviewed by: Anna Wang, UCLA student