Mady's Media Blog

The week before Thanksgiving my little sister who is attending BYU-I hurried to get her mission papers submitted so she could open them at home surrounded by family. But guess what? We waited and waited and her call never came. People who submitted their papers AFTER her were getting their calls, and we were (im)patiently waiting. Two days after returning to college, she received a text saying her mission call was ready to be viewed online. So what did we do? Exactly nine hours from the time she got her call, there were 25 family members on FaceTime, and her roommate was streaming the event on Instagram live. It was amazing to be able to (kind of) be there with her when she opened it, to see her reaction, and have that immediate need of wanting to know where she was going be filled. But what would we have done in the days before FaceTime and Instagram live? If it would have just been her reading the call on speaker over the phone, then yes, technology enhanced our experience. But...

I'm one of those people who love Hallmark Christmas movies and watch them more than I would like to admit. After our discussion of parental roles in the media, I have been paying attention to the type of parents portrayed in these Christmas movies. Mind you I have seen the most popular ones, so I am scraping by with the lesser-known, not as well produced movies, but I have noticed two parenting types: 1. The father disapproves of the daughters lifestyle, while the mother lovingly cares for the daughter, but is too timid to share her opinion.  Towards the end of the movie, the father embraces the daughter for who she is, or 2. Either both or one parent has died. Similar to Disney, these movies are short and usually cover meeting, dating, and getting engaged or married. Therefore, the individuals have to be emotionally and mentally prepared. By having their parents either disapproving or dead, it allows the main characters to grow on their own, mature, and find somebody else ...

I have been pleasantly surprised with how many TV shows have been talking about mental illnesses recently. I feel like in our society many people keep quite about any mental illnesses they experience, but it is not something to be ashamed about! Shows like Atypical and The Good Doctor have taught me so much about those who have autism. This Is Us has been showing what depression looks like, and how it affects the individual and those around them. I recently watched Netflix's Maniac , where the main character has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. I think this is a good step towards people being more open and willing to seek out help when they see characters in the media who are willing to get help.

If there is one thing I can do well, it's sleep. Yet these past few weeks I have been having a hard time falling asleep, I wake up almost every hour, and am just failing at my self-proclaimed "Sleeping Queen" title. This week in class we talked about how looking at a screen before bed can mess up your circadian rhythm that leads to disrupted sleep patterns. I usually don't look at social media at all throughout the day, and catch up just before I go to bed. So this week I decided to not look at screens for an hour before I went to sleep. IT. CHANGED. EVERYTHING. Not only was I able to fall asleep faster, I stayed asleep the whole night until my alarm went off in the morning. In return, I was less tired in my classes the following day. I was most surprised by how fast I was able to fall asleep. I did not connect that my viewing social media before I went to sleep kept my mind alert and thinking about things, which inhibited me from falling asleep. I just thought my...

With midterms behind me and a routine setting in, I felt like I had more time this week than I have in months! In my head I thought it would the perfect time to catch up on journal (oops!), reply to all of my emails, and prepare for the upcoming week. Instead I fell even further behind in my journal, have even more emails to reply to, and feel like I am still playing catch up with the semester. What happened? Youtube happened. I feel like I am able to control my "screen time" pretty well when I am busy. But when I have time, it starts to control me. Don't get me wrong, I found some great videos about strangers helping each other, seeking discomfort, and overcoming fears. But I felt guilty the whole time I was doing it because I knew there were better things I could be doing with my time. The bad thing is, it happened for a few days. I feel like managing my time wisely is very important, and so I set some goals to keep the screen time to a reasonable amount this week. ...

The realization that you can video chat with multiple people on Snapchat has changed my life this semester! I have always been close to my family, but once I come back to school in the fall communication between my sisters and I heavily relies on our group text message and videos sent through snapchat. But even then, we all have different schedules and end up replying hours later. Then we found the new(ish) video call feature on snapchat. All four of us can get on at the same time and talk! We have designated 8:30pm for us in Utah/Idaho, and 7:30pm for those in Nevada as "Sister Snapchat time." Every day can be a bit excessive, but it allows us to talk about things we normally wouldn't tell each other in the group texts. I also get to see my niece who is a year and a half grow day to day as she learns new words and showcases her growing personality. Media can be such a great tool in creating and enhancing our relationships when we let it! Enjoy this screenshot I took wh...