Prompt: Has the On Demand revolution and shift to consuming media online affected you positively or negatively as a student? How?
The first TV show my family watched together regularly was America’s Funniest Home Videos, hosted
by Tom Bergeron. On particularly stormy
nights, my dad would have to stand in a specific spot close to the TV to keep the
old rabbit ears happy and not give us a fuzzy signal, but we could fall asleep
every Sunday night with smiles on our faces.
Fast forward 10 years, and I’m sitting at dinner in the cafeteria,
trying to keep up with my friends’ heated discussion about the latest Covert Affairs episode. Similar shows,
like Madmen or Suits, have created cult followings, where fans are so die-hard
that shows seem to have stopped making it easy to jump in and enjoy a few
episodes in the middle of a season. Less
often are shows like AFV where you
don’t need to know season’s worth of plot twists in order to enjoy each episode
individually. However, along with
opportunities to watch whatever you like online, naturally, come abuses of this
freedom. The lack of a middleman makes
downloading music or watching pirated movies illegally all too easy nowadays.
I’ll admit that I’m one of the least up-to-date with electronics of my
friends - heaven forbid that I haven’t upgraded to a smartphone yet – but this
doesn’t create a conducive lifestyle to take advantage of all that online media
has to offer. However, I do appreciate
the ease of staying update with the world with just a few clicks of a button. Although I don’t have a Twitter, keep a
regular blog, nor do I automatically get alerted for breaking news, I have
found my own uses online media. I don’t
know what I’d do without starting my day using my parent’s NYTimes subscription
online or winding down some nights with watching The Daily Show. I appreciate
online media’s role as a catalyst for spreading new ideas or enrichment. I love watching TED Talks online or
subscribing to Youtube channels that have nice workout videos. Last year, my friends and I took to watching online
Linear Algebra classes taught by professors at other universities to fill in
any gaps in our own professor’s lectures.
Using online media to reinforce what I’ve learned in class has improved
my education.
Although I wouldn’t consider
myself the best at taking advantage of the opportunities that online media
provides, like reading politician’s twitters, staying updated on the latest Top
40 list, or even being a loyal follower of TV show dramas, I’ve progressively
found use for it in my life. Overall, I
conclude that the
recent shift to consuming media online has had a positive impact on my life,
although I don’t feel strongly about this preference – call me old fashioned.
watching tv episodes online: signup.netflix.com or www.hulu.com
NYTimes online: http://www.nytimes.com
Ted Talks: http://www.ted.com/talks
watching Linear Algebra lessons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjBerM5jWsc
