FREE ESSAY ON HOW THE MEDIA AFFECTS MY LIFE

HOW THE MEDIA AFFECTS MY LIFE

Donna Jirkovsky
Professor Miller
Media and Society
Monday, September 25th 2000
How the Media Effects my Life
One thousand six hundred and eighteen minutes. One thousand six hundred and eighteen was
spent by me, on my computer, in three days. That seems to be a lot of time when you think
about it, probably just about twenty seven hours. How could all that time be spent at as
single machine like a PC. One of the best features of the PC is that you can use many
different media forms at one time. I use my PC for communication with my boyfriend who
goes to SUNY Albany, to check my email for letters of annoyance from my parents, and to
provide me with entertainment. Sometime i also use it for work, but that doesn't happen
to frequently. The best part about that though is that i can do all those things all at
the same time. Usually i turn my PC on when i wake up and off when i go to bed. My
computer saves me time and money and makes my life so much happier.
As i conducted the data, I realized how much i actually did surf the web in one day, and
how many advertisements i saw. The internet, which is the virtual playground of where i
spend most of my time, is a swamp of never ending advertisements and hidden links. Every
other thing that you click is hypertext disguised as something else so the site will get
a hit. I had never really realized but the media today has endless possibilities for
advancement because of the internet. Right now currently the biggest thing going on is
the 27th Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, which is being solely covered by NBC and
their affiliates. Since the Olympic Games began, the regular NBC site has tripled their
Web hits and their official Olympic site has almost maxed out on the systems resources
from all te people logging on and trying to find out "Up to the minute results." I myself
even have spent hours on the site finding out track and field times and Gymnastics
scores. The other thing i found myself doing for hours on end is the most widely done
thing on college campuses today (or at least it seems). I chatted, A lot. I talked to my
boyfriend every day at least three times a day and i would talk to others that i know
that go to different schools. This is one of the best things to ever happen to a college
student because the programs are free and it cuts down on phone bills.