Music with homework

Everyone is different on whether or not they can have music/noise while trying to focus on homework. I've never been able to take a test in the classical musical section at the testing center. I have such a hard time focusing. But for some reason, while working on homework, I need to have some background music playing. I guess it technically depends on what type of homework I'm doing. If I'm reading a text book or working on a math problem, the quieter the better.

However, while writing a paper, it takes me a lot longer if I'm not listening to something. I just wrote a paper for a class and was having a hard time focusing on exactly what I wanted to write about. I decided to turn on some music and after a few minutes I was focused enough and wrote the paper in pretty good time. It depends on the person, but I think for me the music distracts part of my brain so that the other part can focus on writing. If it's silent while writing my brain is trying to think of too many things at once. It'll be interesting as I experiment throughout the semester where its more helpful for me to listen to music and where I shouldn't.

Messages Learned

When we think of media, the form that usually comes to mind would be television, movies, and/or music. News articles are not normally the first thing we could categorize as media; at least, I don't. When I think about the shows I've been watching and what type of messages are being portrayed, it will influence how much I will continue to watch that specific show and the take home message I receive from it. At times I am not fully aware that the information I read in newspapers or books have as much of an influence on my life and perspective of things as the television programs do.

My father sent out an article to our family that discusses someone's view of marriage. While reading it, I found myself "talking" to the author of the article and giving my own opinion in reply to what she was saying. I realized that I end up doing this quite often while reading anything. I have my own dialogue going on and by the end I realize the influence of what I'm reading and how I am going to disperse it out into the rest of my life. I decided that this is a good form to keep up because it is helping me become more aware of the media I am being exposed to and what I truly think of the message it's sending.

The Reason Behind the Show

Today in class we discussed a variety of theories and the ways they look at forms of media. Specifically the outcomes of what media can have on a person or society and what hidden reasoning lies beneath the surface. One of the theories is called Uses and Gratifications. Basically, you watch a television show or movie because you are trying to fill a need that you have for yourself. It can either be to hide behind a relationship with someone in the show, or to deal with some traumatic emotional situation.

This really got me thinking about why I find myself so hooked and obsessing over certain TV series or being in the mood to watch a specific chick-flick. There have been times in my life where the dating game has not gone too well, and instead of dealing with the "real life boys," I focus in on a relationship that is developing between characters somewhere else. There's always the classic Nicholas Sparks movies that we are all dying to watch when we want to see the sappy (and predictable) love between a couple. And when you just can't seem to find the perfect man, we resort to watching Pride & Prejudice, and fall back in love with Darcy. A problem that comes from this sort of "obsession" with finding fictitious love in media, is that we then get an unrealistic view of how it is in real life. And yet, we still fill our time with searching for romance inside the media. The media industry has gotten their hands wrapped around the emotions of women, and quite frankly its difficult to fight against them.

Media Fast Fail

For our class we were challenged to go 24 hours without media. That means no computer, cellphone, television, music, etc. I figured it would be easy enough to try it out. Boy was I wrong. For two days I was going to start the morning good and make it through with no form of media. However, the rest of either day did not go as planned. Things came up that resulted in me using my phone or computer. And driving up to Ogden was going to be a very boring ride without music.

I was thinking about this and how difficult it has become to "survive" without some form of media. It is becoming extremely easy to allow it to overtake our lives. In class yesterday we did a little self-survey to see how much media we actually use throughout our days. Yeah....my hours were higher than I wanted them to be. It can be hard to fight the use of media. So instead, my goal for this semester is to try and use media more for good. I'm going to find ways where I feel like I'm benefiting from using media and not just wasting my time away. We'll see how it goes.

Blogging is back!

It's been a little while since I've posted anything on my blog. 2 years is a long time, but better late than never right? Having a smart phone, it just seems easier to use Instagram instead of taking time getting onto a computer. However, I'm taking a media class at school this semester and we get to blog about thoughts, experiences, interactions, etc. that we have with media. So for the time being, this blog will take a break from the normal daily activities of my life, and focus more on the media that sadly takes up a lot of my time :).

I did it!

I have successfully completed a 5K. Nicole and I had been wanting to do one, but it was getting hard to work around schedules. So we decided to put on our own with Jeffery's family. And some of our family came as well. It was so much fun, and felt great. Let's just say, now Nicole and I are for sure going to do another one, and one day we shall work towards a marathon or half marathon.......one day.

P.S. I had my 21st Birthday last week. *gasp*

Warm Weather = Forgetful Brain

So, I've been meaning to update this thing, but the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. 60s and 70s! Which leads me to play outside and enjoy the sun, leaving me to forgetting to get on and put up some pictures. But now the time has come. As usual, most these pictures below will consist of my darling little niece, but that's okay, because pictures of her are way more fun to look at than of me.
This little girl has started eating solids
My Uncle Marcus got married this weekend, wahoo! It was such a beautiful day for a wedding!