So let’s talk about myself in relation to media in various forms. As a child, I was heavily influenced by media. To start, I was an avid reader. I began reading in Kindergarten (a grade earlier than my peers), and from that point on, I would read anything that I could get my hands on. I read scientific non-fiction, mystery, fables, fairy tales, legends, mythological fiction, science fiction, medieval fantasy, and more.
I also played plenty of “video games” so to speak. Granted, many of these were old scratchy PC CD’s from my childhood, but I started interacting with computers and “gaming” from literally before I could read. The next step up, was the Gameboy Color, where I was sucked into “real” video games with my very first game – Pokemon Fire Red. I’ve been gaming off and on ever since.
I wasn’t really big into television as a kid (namely because my family wasn’t able to afford it), though every chance we got say, at my grandparent’s, I would watch television to until my eyes couldn’t take it anymore. One of my favorite shows as a kid, was Avatar: The Last Airbender (which, if I say so myself, is still positively fantastic for adults and children alike).
And as far as movies, my sisters and I watched a plethora. Too many to remember in fact (my grandparents owned a DVD/VHS rental store, and free rentals meant a childhood drowning in content and plot). So yeah; I have consumed media readily and openly since as far back as I can remember.
Today, in regards to whether I am more of an “analog” or “digital” person, I have to say that I prefer digital media much more to analog media. Analog media has it’s place in my life, but digital media is so much more convenient for me, and there is so much freedom and flexibility within the digital world that you can’t necessarily find in the analog world.
I am a fan of all media for the most part, though I do have to say that lengthy publications like books and long articles have changed significantly for me. I used to love reading for hours on end, and now I want the story in as few words as possible. I think my attention span has shortened significantly, and text media just isn’t as appealing to me as it once was.
The reason behind why I enrolled in the class Elements of Media Making, is because I plan on teaching art. And one of the big takeaways I had last year in one of my education class was that as teachers we should openly embrace technology for the sake of learning, and that we should be open to being not only distributors, but creators of educational media for the benefit of learning. I hoped this class could give me tools to use in said role in the future.
Kortney Crosby 