Who Do You Think You Are?

            Feminist? Buddhist lay person? Aspiring teacher? What I do (upon consistent reflection) is figure out how to break away from and deconstruct the titles and categories under which society would place me. However, this leaves me with a little too much room for self judgment, under no exact mold or standard. When it comes to advertisement and media that we cannot escape, I’ve tried my best to shut them out because of my fear of their underlying motives. I understand that corporations have experts who make sure that the general public feels like they need a certain product or service. In my last year of high school, I worked on a group community service project that launched a website to help teens become more aware of the media’s role in our lives. We created PSA’s, small videos, songs, and collected news on different topics to show that our website could be used as a collective source for young people to become more educated on what was happening around them and, more importantly, how to be more active in that reality. In that sense, I have been selectively involved with the media. I identify myself most with projects like these because my goals ultimately have to do with helping young people feel adequate.

               I’ve seen my mom get crazy about the news. She’s come home with stacks of papers with sexual predators in our general area and has told me how to take precaution. There have been many arguments about my freedom vs. her parental paranoia, and that’s only driven me away from news stories. Although I’m aware that it is always better to be alert and know what’s going on, no news is good news. It’s a burden not to know how to filter all this destructive information and I wanted to stop making myself feel hopeless. Social networking works the same way in my mind. I have Facebook for the sake of communication and staying connected to people I otherwise wouldn’t get a hold of, but for a long time I battled myself for even keeping an account. I don’t always like the ways in which people use it because of the things they choose to transmit. In this sense, I’d say my involvement with the media has been an ongoing tug of war. I’m looking forward to a shifting outlook and feeling more capable of making changes to the way the media shapes people.

http://yrevolt.org/

http://riveranicole.blogspot.com/  - here's the link to my online portfolio of short stories, drafts, reflections, and...growth, basically. 

Fun fact: I've always had an obsession with Christmas and the spirit of the holiday. I found this cartoon while searching "consumerism" on the web for my last media class, it changed a lot in terms of how I choose to give to people during the season. 

http://voiceoftruthblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Santa-Spend.jpg