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*This week’s blog post is an assignment for my Public
Relations class. Enjoy!
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I watch far too much TV. I haven’t watched TV in months.
Both of these statements are true. How? Because Netflix.
That’s how. The media, and how I consume it, has changed so drastically since I
was a shaggy-haired virgin, I don’t know where to start!
But let’s explore the topic and see where it takes us… ‘cause
this thing has to be posted by 5 o’clock.
The Internets — Back
in my day, we called it “the web!”
It’s changed everything. The fact that you’re reading my
blog means that you already know this. But remember back to when it was slow,
bland, and hard to use?
My first reaction to the Internet was, “Who cares? It’s just
a lot of reading. I do enough of that at school!” Early websites looked awful.
The text was small and hard to read with patterned backgrounds and poor quality
photos — if there were photos at all.
Eventually, that turned into, “Hey Mom! Get off the phone! I
want to use the Internet!” Slowly, as I got into my teens, content on the
Internet took a big leap forward. Suddenly, I could listen to any song for
free, watch any movie for free, and discover all sorts of things a young
impressionable mind should never ever see. So thank you, Internet, for giving
me Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory in exchange for my innocence.
Social Media — Back
in my day, Facebook was called the phonebook!
I don’t know my own girlfriend’s number and I’ve been dating
her for well over a year. I thought about this the other day when my phone
died. Can I look her up in the phonebook? Of course not.
Remember the days when you would talk on the phone with your
significant other instead of getting vague text messages and wondering what
kind of emotions are behind them? It was a simpler time, no doubt.
But now we get to keep in touch with hundreds of people (if
you’re so inclined) and share our thoughts, feelings, and drunken photos at the
click of a button! Sexting is a thing now! Your mom isn’t going to pick up the
phone and hear your conversation anymore! You’ll never lose touch with anyone
unless you want to… or if they don’t have Facebook.
And it’s so much more than that. You can personalize your
newsfeed, follow celebrities, broadcast yourself (like I’m doing right now).
It’s thebomb.com as my girlfriend would say.
Movies & Television — Back in my day, Netflix sent you DVDs in the mail!
Remember those? When was the last time you put a DVD in a
DVD player? When was the last time you used a VHS? Remember having to rewind
them (if you were kind) before returning them to Blockbuster? I remember the
extra-thick copy of Titanic and how far I had to fast-forward to get to the…
ahhh… good parts.
Fast forward to last year and I remember getting my laptop.
I was so surprised by the fact that there’s no CD drive. I was like, “Hey! How
am I going to play my DVDs or rip my CDs!?” And then I remembered that it was
2014.
If it isn’t on Netflix, it’s on Popcorn Time (so good!), and
if it isn’t there, someone out there is hosting it illegally. I guarantee it.
Is it a good thing? It’s convenient — not to mention cheap.
It’s easier to find an audience for your content but much harder to get paid to
produce it.
So there you have it. Media!
... In
5 years, we’ll all be playing videogames on Twitch and asking our fans for donations.
