The Top Six Media Affectations Sydne (Reluctantly) Has

In an entirely mass-media saturated culture, Sydne has tried (ineffectively) to isolate herself from the never-ending attacks. Unfortunately, any sort of hermitage requires the exchange of currency something that Sydne lacks completely. Subsequently, she is forced to accede to the pressures of society, which involve a university career followed by a grown-up one, which involve ridiculous amounts of knowledge/media use. And its disgusting. 6. Cell Phones and Social Media Of all the items on this list, these are the ones which are used reluctantly, out of habit and force. All this about the joys of pooping with smartphones goes completely over Sydnes head. Having put off getting a phone until nearly leaving for college, her phone is viewed as an intangible leash that is required to go about in society. The eerie way in which people carry on face to face conversations all the while texting, like a half-human cyborg who can only communicate through screens, makes her push her phone deeper in her bag. As far as social media, the use was only brought about by friends who decided (foolishly) to leave the province to continue their education and the only means of maintaining those friendships was to stoop to Facebook on her knees and surrender anonymity. The commonality between these two new media types is that they are used as skeletons bare bones. What is an app? Sydne doesnt understand Farmville. Music and telecommunication on the same tiny magic computer? No thank you. 5. Television Like most internet users, Sydne finds the television an admirable source of background noise while stuck to her laptop. Shes not really sure what is going on with TV, with the overwhelming vampire-esque stories or a Jurassic Park ripoff or laugh-track sitcoms still running strong. However, there are a few shows which continually provide some sort of interest for Sydne, if they so happen to be on. Jeopardy! is solid gold and always will be as long as Alex Trebek continues to be the most fantastic person on television. Americas Funniest Home Videos provides unending images of people getting hurt (which is the majority of .gifs on the internet). The Daily Show and The Colbert Report both have incredible merits. When HBO takes an amazing series of novels and turns them into halfdecent dramas, these are also consumed by Sydne. Its not like theyre multi-million dollar projects that demand being watched. 4. Movies Of course, its laughable to spend millions of dollars on any one art-form (cough, if you can call it that anymore) and still more ridiculous to spend over ten dollars for admission. Still, the movie industry is one that is universally enjoyed, though it is hard to find those good films which are worth watching. Movies full of ridiculous premises, classic cinema, science fiction epics, pretty much anything Pixar releases, when New Line Cinema takes an amazing trilogy of novels and turns them into fantastic epics these are all fantastic ways to spend a couple hours. Even rewatching Disneys Pocahontas with the knowledge that it is indeed Mel Gibson as John Smith is a pretty fantastic way to spend an hour and a half, and its recommended to hear him sing.

3. Music Sydne does acknowledge the wonderful work that new media has done for the release of new music an easy way to allow artists to record their work and have it heard across the world. This is an admirable aspect of media and she respects it. Concerts aside, her consumption of music ranges from the wonderful people working in AM radio to play music dating from the 1900s to the newer artists such as Gogol Bordello and Streetlight Manifesto. Music does remain an integral part of Sydnes life, and as such could be defined as media-saturated, even if she does still have her iPod Nano from six years ago and still shops for CDs and records. But nothing with auto-tune. That is offensive. 2. Teh Internets Any self-respecting 20-something has a deep understanding and familiarity to the internet, social media aside. Research in libraries is now pretty outdated. Ennui and constant information go pretty well hand in hand. Sydne spends her internet time doing one of two things, always. Cracked.com is the only website (besides e-mail) to be checked daily, because she revels in the constant stream of (mostly trivial) knowledge presented in amusing ways. Once the (usually three, not counting those from the past) articles are read, StumbleUpon is the fallback. Simply because StumbleUpon is a vast and all-encompassing medium, the influences of internet culture cant help but be avoided. The ridiculous memes, recycled jokes and mentality are all present, and probably wont leave. The enormous population of teh internets wont allow it. 1. Books Finally, a form of media that doesnt require the use or understanding of new technology. Something that has persisted throughout history as a wonderful means of conveying information that wont change. Editors Note: Sydne refuses to acknowledge the existence of e-readers or Kindles or anything that requires the user to stop reading because their book ran out of batteries. Books are the primary media used in Sydnes life. She is probably, by best estimates, never more than 10 feet away from a book currently being read. While she stays primarily in the science-fiction and fantasy genres, there is nothing wrong with any sort of classic novel or play, as long as it is something to read and teach. Does that come across as weird? Are books weird now? Oh well, at least new media is at least still relying on the written word (for the most part).