Thinking and Writing About Digital Media

My Habits
I have a broad range of habits involving media/popular culture.  On the small scale I watch about 2 full t.v. shows a year.  Compared to other people, especially students, that is not a lot.  I definitely watch more movies, about 2 a week on average.  The majority of the movies are horror movies as I am doing research for a play I wish to write.  I spend about an average amount of time on social media.  I never really post things, but I check my Instagram and Facebook about 3-4 times a day.  Sometimes, if I have nothing to do I check it more often, but usually to make the notifications go away because I am OCD about red notifications.  On the larger, more frequent side of the spectrum I spend a lot of time looking at memes or vines.  I guess my habit is that I spend my time on these websites as winding down time before I go to bed.  So, while other things may be only 2 or 3 times a week, the memes are everyday because it's part of my routine.  I would say I get the greatest enjoyment out of watching movies and t.v. shows, even though they are the media that I access the least.  I spend more time on the web looking through popular culture things such as memes or social media, but it doesn't give me a lot of pleasure.  I am actively trying to lessen the time I spend on them, but they are such a habit that it is difficult.

My Guidelines
I have much more active and thought out guidelines for creating and posting content than consuming it.  I don't engage in any political discussion or controversial content on social media.  I've never created or posted memes or shared anything on Facebook.  I don't have a youtube account or vimeo or anything.  The only things I share, post, or create are pictures to Instagram at about the rate of about 1 post every 3 months, and occasionally a status update on Facebook about a show I am doing.  I never really post anything else about my life, what I'm doing, where I am.  I only post pictures, never any immediate information.  However, I'm not really sure I have super big guidelines for media consumption.  I am o.k. with and have watched many R rated films.  My guidelines for that are no sexual content, but I don't really care about violence or language.  And while I don't engage in discussions online, I definitely read comments or posts about them so I can help inform myself.  I like to read articles and identify the bias within the article and see if I agree or don't.  Then I look up the issue and inform myself about it.  I read and see a lot of content online about popular culture or current opinions on things.  I think it's important as an artist to see what is happening in the world at the time and how my art fits in it.

Education Connections
I definitely think the habit of being conscientious about what I post and create will be very helpful as a teacher.  Especially after reading about online professionalism.  I do think I could create more guidelines about what I consume as it relates to popular culture and media.  Think about what kind of content I want to be viewing and why.  If it's for research, or enjoyment, and then adjust what I view to match those reasons.

Comments

  1. Daniel, as I was reading your response, I couldn't help but think about how we can harness our own media interests (like memes and vines) in the classroom. Often times these are mediums that are just for entertainment and are about as low brow as you can get. However, these can be a great way to build connections to and relate with our students. And I'm sure we can find ways to connect the pop culture media to our content matter beyond just providing something to laugh at. Could they be jumping off places for acting exercises? Could they inspire devised pieces? Could the be used in devised pieces? Etc.

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