Putting the phone aside

There is nothing I love more than spending time with my family. After being apart for months, it is so nice to get together and be face to face with those that mean the most to me.  As I was with my family and being in this class, I noticed more than usual the media intake of myself and the people around me. As I've expressed in previous posts about my love for music, I got a better understanding of my undying love for it as I spent time with my family. There is almost always music going on in the background when we are all together. The noise is sometimes forgotten about and at other times we are all singing along to songs that we all love. I realized how much music has been apart of my life and this type of media has such an important part in my life that it was cool to gain an insight into another reason why it is so important to me. Another thing I noticed was cell phone use around my family. Of course there were times when people were swept away onto the online world but for the most part, people put down their phones and really engaged with the people around them. It was enlightening to see how important it is to put phones aside and have face to face interactions. I realized that while phones are amazing in so many ways, it is also amazing to put them down and be involved with what is around us in the moment. I'm grateful for the media that I have but I'm even more grateful for the personal, real, and face to face interactions, conversations and experiences that I have when I put my phone aside.

Rough Week

This past week has been incredibly hard. I woke up Thursday morning to hear tragic news from my hometown Thousand Oaks, California. At first I just received a text from my aunt telling me our family friend was safe and immediately I took to the internet to find out the terrible news. I couldn't believe that a shooting had happened in the safest place or a place I call home. It was devastating and so scary and simply hard to comprehend. Not even 24 hours later, there were fires that were threatening our area. Growing up in California we are known for fires but nothing like this had ever happened. I woke up early Friday morning to the news that my family had to be evacuated in the middle of the night because of the fires. All of Friday I was able to see familiar places completely destroyed. I was able to hear from my mom updates on not only my family and their safety but I also heard about families and friends houses who had burned down. It has been so hard to see photos of the place I call home facing destruction and sometimes, it has been too much to take. However, I want to point out how grateful I am for media during this hard time. I'm grateful that I was able to quickly find out the things on the shooting, or how I'm able to keep updated on the fires. Im grateful for text messages that allow us to quickly communicate messages of safety and updates and be able to stay in contact that way. I'm grateful for the messages of hope and pictures that were able to lift my spirits. While this has been a hard time, it has never been more clear to me how much media can be a tool and a helpful way to receive information and for that I'm grateful. 

Queen

This past Friday night was date night with my husband and part of that date night was going to see the movie Bohemian Rhapsody. As lovers of Queen, we were more than excited to go and spend some time learning more about this iconic band and some of the highlights and low points in their life. As we went sat in the theater, we had the unfortunate experience of sitting in front of people with poor theater etiquette. They talked non-stop, rather loudly I may add, sang along to songs that, no offense, I didn't come to hear them sing, so I could of gone on without, and crazy loud laughing that didn't allow me to hear some of the following lines after a funny one. This really made me think how grateful I am for people who have proper theater etiquette because sometimes it can make or break a movie. However, nothing could break the fun and greatness of this movie. As the movie went on and more songs came on, I was hit with awe with how many hits Queen has released and how awesome and classic their music is. As my husband and I talked after the movie, I thought about how I learned these songs and how I feel important it is to know classic music. It then allowed us to discuss how it is important to us and how great a responsibility it is for us to teach our kids the classic songs and make sure they know what good music is. I have so many memories of blasting Queen songs with my friends on long drives and listening to it with my family, and even choreographing a dance to Don't Stop Me Now. Music stays with us for most of our life and I'm grateful for the reminder of how impactful this type of media is and how much I love it.