Media and I.
Media and the world.

     Living in a new generation where media forms are already highly developed, every individual consume it in different ways and has various mindset when consuming these contents. Media is basically a part of our everyday lives. 

    Here are the top 3 media forms that I consume:

   The New Media or the Internet

      The internet provides websites, blogs, e-mail and I use it on a regular basis and prefer it over the others simply because it is the easiest way to access information, download contents, socialize with other people, stay updated with current events and trends, and just about everything else. I know it is illegal to just download contents for free, but what can I do? I don't even know one soul who does not download illegally, except maybe the royals (the rich kids). I, however, promise to be legal once I become a royal. *cue song* "And we'll ever be royaaaals (royals) it don't run in our blood..."

      Kidding aside, Social media is the one I use everyday, especially Facebook and Twitter. Since it is installed in my smartphone, I have easy access to it and it is my way of communicating and socializing with people instead of text messaging. Not to mention that it is less boring than texting. Let me just say that I use Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Youtube regularly and equally, not just Fb and Twitter. I just had to narrow it down for academic purposes.

      While the appropriate age for Facebook is 13 years old, there is no doubt that underage kids are also using Facebook. Some parents are even helping them to lie about their age upon signing up. The age requirement is just for the youngsters safety. Some children and teenagers will not be able to handle cyber-bullying if this occurs and may lead to emotional problems, unless guided by their parents to avoid these from happening.  Twitter, however, has no age limit. I think twitter should be used by people who are mature enough to see any pictures and tweets by whoever they are following and mostly that age would be 15 and above.

 I hate to admit it, but new media got the first place. 

Film

Not sure if film or television. Why? Well, I just download stuff from the internet and then watch it on TV. So, film it is. To be specific, animation or anime. Japanese anime to be precise. I would be discussing one (1) anime later on but let me just please state all my favorite anime that is currently in my memory as of this moment.

• Fairy Tail which currently has 250+ episodes and is ongoing. I highly suggest this, mostly because of the talking cat named Happy.
• Sword Art Online Trapped and fighting for their very lives in a Virtual Reality MMORPG. Death in game means death in real life. Very heartwarming.
• Angel Beats No one, I repeat, no one has ever finished this without crying, even guys. My heart is crying out to you to watch this! Its just 13 episodes.
• AnoHana Childhood friends stick together until the end, no matter how many challenges they go through, even death. Even my brother cried his heart out! 
• Area No Kishi If you're into soccer, then this is the right anime for you. Its tragic, though. You have been warned. It does not sugar-coat.
• Kuroko no Baske If you're into basketball, then I recommend this.
• Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun Every girl wants a guy like the main character in this anime! Heart-pounding.
• Hunter x Hunter This is one of the very first anime I have seen during my childhood. I recommend the 2011 version with 100+ episodes and ongoing. 
• Toradora! Very romantic and funny. A slice of life.
• Mirai Nikki  Very mind-boggling. 
• K-on! School life and music. Awesome anime! Very hilarious.
• Clannad and Clannad After Story Psychological, comedy, slice of life. A love story unlike any other.
• Another Horror. Awesome horror. 

And finally, my favorite among my favorites,

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

     Sakura Dormitory is a dorm for the high school students of Suimei University of Arts which hosts the strangest, most trouble-making students with the care of their teacher, who is also quite troublesome but cool. Sorata Kanda, the lead character, got kicked out of the normal dorm for keeping a stray cat, and moved in to Sakura Dormitory. A world famous artist who cannot even take care of her daily life, moves in. Sorata had no choice but to take are of Mashiro Shiina.

     Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo affected me in various ways. It made me think of thoughts like "I wish I can live a life like that, despite the challenges and troubles" . It made me think of my dreams and what I want to become when I graduate from school, my friends, my family, my talents, my weakness, and just about everything. My life, basically.

     This anime can convey to anyone straight on that even the most troublesome people can make a difference, and sometimes make the biggest achievement and creates better ideas. I remember a scene where they hosted an interactive game for their school's festival, and it was indeed a professional work and made my hair rise and got goosebumps all over as they did it with all their hearts. 

     I cannot control my feelings while explaining what it is about and what lesson in life it has, so here are some scenes:

[Spoiler alert]

Sorata talking to her younger sister

The troublesome group creating trouble even as they graduate, so they are forced to stand outside

Mashiro being her usual, genius, child-prodigy self who got 100% in all her exams just by browsing other people's notes

Mashiro, maybe for the first time in the whole season, finally smiled as she did a painting of everyone in the dorm before she leaves for England

And basically, Sorata and Mashiro's cute scenes

Another scene where my heart keeps pounding and rushing is the episode of Jin and Misaki's story. Their love story is complicated at first because Jin kept dating other girls, but later on I found out that he just respects Misaki so much that he wanted to be a better person first.

 And in the end..

Also, they were able to realize a lot of things and solved their problem and touched the hearts of many people.

Once again, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

I suppose that with all the excitement I had, it is clear that I watch anime on a regular basis to just escape real life for a while, reminisce life, daydream and imagine I am one of the characters, and to just bond with my virtual family. And with that, I end my story-telling. Back to reality.

     Media literacy is crucial when it comes to viewing these contents since it is beyond control what we watch. So, we always have to keep in mind to choose the right genre in par with our age and level of maturity. This particular anime tends to have green jokes at times, so I guess the appropriate age would be 15 and above. It also has some scenes wherein the character does not have clothes (but the private parts are censored or hidden) or barely have clothes on. For me, it is not that inappropriate for my age (17) since I am open-minded about those things.

     I do watch movies in cinemas as well, but I think discussing anime is much more interesting than discussing about movies that almost each one of us already knows.

     As much as I want anime to be the first place, it can't be helped. I have to award the internet first place for giving me these contents.

Print 

     I may not seem to be a person who read books, but heck, if I could have all the books in the world, I would read them all (exaggeration right there). Books can sometimes be better that the movie. Reading books strengthen my critical thinking skills and widens my vocabulary, that's why I always read, and at the same time, I enjoy it. Im just like any other bookworms out there who cries a river because of The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, captivated by Veronica Roth's Divergent series, inspired by Nicholas Sparks' and Mitch Albom's beautiful works and David Levithan's unique stories.

     The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky may be mainstream, but so what? It depends on the person if he or she will enjoy the story or not. As for me, I liked the book. The story line was kind of unexpected and it really bothered me, which rarely happens. The part where Charlie was abused by her aunt was revealed and when he got crazy really disturbed the peace in my mind. But putting that part aside, the book is really inspiring and the contents are great. There were so many film, music, and literary works included in the story that were used by the characters, which is great.
     There were also many quotes from the book, which answers life questions or inspire you to do something or are simply good to read. For example, the ever famous quotation from which Charlie, the lead character, said when Patrick asked him how he was feeling while Sam, the girl charlie is in love with, was standing at the back of the pick-up as they drove past the Fort Pitt Tunnel like a jet. 

     some other quotations from the book:

and my personal favorite

   Books have different genres as well, like films. Young-adult fiction can be read by ages 13-18, but I think that some 13 year-olds will not be able to really get the story. A mindset that every reader should have, is that these stories are fictional and is not real. This mindset can save them from daydreaming and forever wanting their lives to be like that, and yes, it happens. 

*drumroll*

And so, the third place goes to print media, specifically books, for being amazing.

Issues and Concerns

New Media 

I do have some concerns about the internet. And it is the privacy, ethics, and freedom of the people using these social networking sites. As for privacy, a lot of people are being hacked by other people and some even read their messages, which I think is very private no matter how nonsense their conversation is, and some even use it against them. This problem, however, is in the hands of the user. He/she should set the privacy settings to his/her liking and set a different password for every account that is not easy to guess. Another is when someone posts a picture of you that you don't want others to see (may be stolen in this case), even though a person takes it lightly because the one who posted is his/her friend, it is still against the victim's will. I think we can solve this merely by talking it out in a proper manner. As for the freedom of speech, a lot of people forget about their values/ethics/morals when they use the internet. Some people are only brave online but personally they are cowardly. I have encountered these events, personally and also heard it from my friends. Honestly, just browsing over my news feed/timeline, I can see people commenting or replying on other people's post with inappropriate words or if not in a post, then they will post, tweet, or blog about that person. I was in shock when I found out that my friend wrote a hateful blog about me, and dear it was long! I never did anything to her, in fact it clearly shows that she was jealous because I have friends she wants to be close with and all those shallow girly things. I solved this by talking it out with her and told her everything straightforward and that she should delete it. We became good friends after a few years.

Right now, I think that the law on cyber crime is not actually bad. In fact, we can still say or post whatever we want, but in a proper manner. Social media is actually for socializing, and I think people should just chill out and enjoy these privileges given to us. There are plenty of issues but these are the main issues that concerns me as of the moment.

Print and Film

I don't really have issues and concerns with these media forms since it is the artist's freedom to do what they want. anyway it goes through some agencies to see if their work is appropriate for showing or publishing. I respect their works. 

That's all! I hope you were able to get something from this. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Source: all image are searched on www.google.com

also, here is a site if you are interested in watching anime:

www.animeseason.com