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cayetanojam-blog · 6 years

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Media and Information: Did they make the society better or did they make it worse?

As a girl who has been comfortable being stuck in her room all day, listening to music and reading stuff on my social media accounts have made me feel as if the sunlight decided to meet my eyes as it chooses to hurt them. Information that is written on media can help you gain more knowledge about a specific topic but it can also try to pull you down to the point where you cannot even see your own shadow.

I was in first grade when my mom decided to work abroad for me to study in a private school. It was hard knowing that I cannot hug her or even see her for about a year or more. We can only call each other for an hour or less and it does not happen every single day— maybe twice or thrice a week only. Sure, social media sites were already made back then but it was not that popular and it was new to us. We do not have enough knowledge on how to use them or what to even click. Until my mom discovered the application which was named “Skype”. With that, I am able to see my mom’s face even though she is a thousand miles away from me. Then, our communication became easier when the creator of Facebook decided to let the people whose age is thirteen and above use their site. Of course, we all have to lie. Maybe it was around the year 2008 or 2009 when I started using their site which means I am only seven or eight years old by that time. I remember putting my birthdate as “October 11, 1994″ for me to be able to use Facebook and when I was celebrating my fourteenth birthday, the social networking site has sent notifications to my friends saying “Today is Jam Cayetano’s birthday. Send her a message.” and when my friends clicked on my profile, it was written that I am twenty-one years old. It was so funny that my friends made it a big deal and teased me about being too old to be in high school. At least now, it was changed into 2001. I have learned how to update my account and fix all the lies that I have put in that site.

As a sixteen-year-old girl who has always been uncomfortable with the people around her, using my phone has helped me voice out my thoughts on my social media accounts. It has made my heart feel everything and feel nothing at the same time. I am always using my Twitter account to let the people know what I am feeling right at that moment. I wanted to feed them with the words I have been trying to throw at them when they chose not to listen. I wanted them to see or feel the pain that I have been feeling to let the people, who are like me, know that they are not alone. I also use Twitter to gather information about the latest issue and then contact a friend using Facebook Messenger to talk about what we found out on the microblogging site. When I do not feel like reading things, I go straight to Instagram and stalk my favorite celebrities to like their latest photo. These three have helped me a lot but have also tried to ruin me. They have tried to ruin me in a way that the words that have been pointed at me acted as if they were blades trying to cut my throat— they were trying to hurt me and shut me up at the same time. These have made me lock myself in my room all day. It made me feel alive online but behind a screen, my sleepless eyes are trying to scream something.

Media and information made a big change in my life. Using media to transmit information is way easier than trying to spill the whole story to someone face-to-face. But it has also built a wall around us, people, in a way that we tend to use those things often than to talk to someone using our eyes and mouth.

I do not consider myself as an expert in the field of media and information for I have always let the opinions of the media get in my way. I always listen to the lies made by the people behind their screens than listen to my own mouth. But I consider myself as someone who thinks before she clicks. I know what and when an information should be sent because a wrong snap can hurt someone— an inappropriate message can kill someone. We should not abuse the assistance of media for it can ruin its name— it can ruin media.

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