A LIFE LIVED IN MEDIA: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

           A Life Lived in Media is an article that proposes the view of life not lived with media, but in media. This contribution discusses the so called “media life perspective” which starts from the realization that the whole of the world and our lived experience in it are framed, mitigated through and made immediate by media. The author’s argument focus about the media’s ontological possibility under several distinct terms: invisibility, creativity, selectivity and sociability.

            It was mentioned that they are considering life as a work of art in media but I disagree. Media is our work of art about life. As the creator, we are the owners of media. Media is all about us and all things that are related to our lives. We influenced media than media influence us. I don’t believe that without media life is useless, the truth is media is useless without us. Our contributions and participation make media active. We are the one who framed media. We dictate media and not the opposite. Just like in news, reports are made by people who of course report it based on what they see. These people decide how they will deliver the report in behalf of the information they gather which at most came from people who contribute to the details of the news or in fact the participants of the news. On the other hand, as viewers we listen and make our own conclusions and decisions after knowing the reports. We are the cause of all news. It became important because it can affect all our lives in a direct or indirect way. Media becomes the medium of influencing each other. In the end, whatever the role media plays, all factors come from us and we decide what to believe and what to do. Everything is a cycle, it is only a fact that today media becomes the easiest bridge of communication.

The issue on media invisibility makes sense to me however I would like to believe that since I am not a very gadget-based person, it is not a big problem for me to be consciously aware of the presence or absence of any media devices. I can honestly say that I can still live happily without a phone or a computer. Oftentimes, I only use these gadgets for their basic purposes. I am not that worried if I don’t have a load in my cell phone or internet connection. Today, I still prefer writing than typing, reading printed material than reading online or reading an electronic copy on my computer screen. Still, I stand on my belief that media is not our life and that we give life to media.

I agree that media opens a window to a new world of knowledge; it is very interesting to learn about other’s life, culture and history. All of us are unique and creative, so is media since all our contributions are embedded on it. I don’t think that reality is framed by media; I would like to think that as a bridge of communication, media allows us to be borderless and open-minded. The chance of being able to see things and information that we can’t access before but today becomes possible which results for a deeper understanding of the world outside ourselves.

I acknowledge the arguments about media’s selectivity. I agree to Niklas Luhmann that institutions within society have increasingly taken seriously the way media depict them. I believe it’s because media represents the public since we show our works and opinions in life through media. It can be to our advantage and disadvantage but it’s a part of life, we can’t always expect things to go always on our way, we can only be responsible for ourselves and sensitive for others.

On media’s sociability, I agree to Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, when he says that the age of privacy seems to be over. I take it not literally but like a phenomenon, an evolution of the word “privacy”. As a part of globalization in our modern world today, being public doesn’t mean we don’t have any remaining privacy at all. Today’s world is full of competency, we compete to excel because we want to be recognize by the general public. It’s similar with our social life. I think except for making friends, we socialize to expand our networks. It’s good that nowadays expanding our networks and communicating by distance are easier; we just need to be responsible in using media.

As our work and creation, media is our responsibility. We own it. It affects our life in the way we allow it, and those factors came from us also. Just like an advocacy commercial says, each of us must “THINK BEFORE WE CLICK”, because MEDIA is the SHIP and WE are the CAPTAIN.