How does media affect you?

Most people don’t realize how much of their lives are controlled by the media. Media is EVERYWHERE. Media is the means of communication. Any type of communication to one or more persons is media. The means of communication I use most frequently is my cell phone and the internet (facebook, myspace, AOL instant messenger). I also have a subscription to just about every gossip magazine known to man.
These means of communication are relatively new to society, especially things like the cell phone and internet. I can remember when there was neither of these two things and I can not imagine today’s society without them. I remember when people used pay phones and they were 25 cents to use. Today pay phones serve virtually no purpose because just about everyone has a cell phone. Cell phones have become higher tech, for example, the Iphone. It is not only a cell phone but also a day planner, a music player, the internet, a calculator, and the list goes on.
When the Iphone first came out a couple months ago, the retail price was 500 dollars and in just 3 months the price has dropped 200 dollars which makes me start to think just how much are we paying for our media? Obviously there was a time when the world didn’t have cell phones, the internet, gossip magazines, MTV, etc. and society went on living their day to day lives just as fine as we do today. So the question is, who made the people of this world believe that the world would come to a screeching halt if we did not have all these means of communication? I am personally influenced by society as a whole, whether it be advertisements, the companies who make these products, the government which is profiting from these products being sold because it is helping the economy, my friends, my family, or the learning institutions the we are enrolled in. Society is constantly convincing the world that we need these products in our lives. They try to come out with different forms of media which appeal to all age groups and all social classes. I feel like all types of media serve a purpose for someone, somewhere. So just because a certain type of media does not directly suit what I need doesn’t mean it is a negative type of media. Obviously my media habits are going to change over time because society is constantly changing, but I can not predict how they are going to change. I feel like I am a well rounded consumer when it comes to the media. I am very in touch with the media, hence being a Media and Communication studies major. Sometimes I feel like I rely too heavily on the media and I try to take a step back sometimes when I feel like it is overwhelming my life as a consumer.

So I am in a media studies class and I am required to blog every week so here it goes. My name is Alexis Bell. I am a junior at the University of Maryland- Baltimore County. I am in Phi Sigma Sigma
. I live with two of my sorority sisters, Renata and Tra-mi. They are my best friends. I was born in New Jersey, but I moved to Georgia when I was 3 and lived there ever since. I am 20 years old, and I am turning 21 in December and can't wait. I am a media and communications study major and that is why I am taking this class. I am studying abroad in Chile this winter for 4 weeks to fulfill the rest of my Spanish requirements and hopefully having a wonderful time. I am also very interested in the media so I am excited about taking this class. I am in college because my parents made me and it is kind of what you are expected to do after college, but I am having a good time being here. Since I have been in school I have been a Biology major and a Psychology major, but now I finally decided what I want to do. Within my major I am required to do an internship which I hope to do this summer at an advertising firm in Washington DC. When I get out of school I hope to work for an advertising firm and do marketing for big companies, just to get my foot in the door. Hopefully one day I will be able to do personal PR work for a big company or for a celebrity. I hope this class gives me a better back ground in the study of media and the way media affects society. This class is the main idea of my major so this class is very important.