ADVENTURES IN MEDIA

My desire to pursue this degree has stemmed from many events, a combination of nature vs. nurture.

When my full time position at a female juvenile placement facility ended due to the facility closing (leaving many adjudicated teens overjoyed I'm sure!) I needed a new plan.  With a Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling Psychology and an adjunct position teaching Psychology at a community college, I decided it was time to do what I love best, return to school and pursue my Ph.D.  My undergrad degree from Ithaca College is Communications TV/Radio.  While I never pursued that form of media, I did work in book publishing for over ten years.  Therefore, when I came across Media Psychology, I realized that I could make all my degrees come full circle.

In part, my current interest in media lies in my other love, teaching.  I have learned to access many media outlets from my students, and I am fascinated in observing and analyzing their "addiction" to media and technology.  I have examined with them in class how their favored means of communication affects the senses.  They are certainly using sight and touch to use their favored form of communication. However, we examine the loss of seeing facial expressions, tones of voice and body posture particularly in texting.

I too will be an object of my own analysis, as this program is determining that I "reenter" the world of media and technology.  While I certainly accessed internet via work, and used texting as a way to avoid verbal communication I had severely restricted my use of media and technology at home.  Working almost constantly between the two jobs, I rejected using (and paying for) cable/tv, internet, and the newspaper.  There was a sense of peace in not hearing the latest bad news and reading books for pleasure only.  Though I had several students who were concerned that in the "event of a nuclear atttack" or something of the sort, that I would be the last person to know and the first to presumably perish.

Now obligated to update my media status, I am the new owner of a MacBook Pro and the Ipod that came with it.  Time is now spent learning to access my new toys, viewing videos and shopping, while my library books sit unattended.  Will I too become like my students, more interested in the form of communication rather than the content?  Or, will I be able to forge a brand new theory regarding media and psychology?