Who am I? What is my relationship to media?

It seems quite a difficult task to answer these two questions separately -- at least this day and age. Media is intertwined into my life more than I could have ever wanted or imagined. I don't like feeling bound to anything, but it has happened almost subliminally. I would have liked to just simply start by saying that I am a mother of a wonderful five year old who contributes to my appreciation of life, a loyal and supportive wife, a respectful and appreciative daughter, and a hard-working student determined to finish college until the goal of completing a master's in Bilingual Special Education is attained. If asked to elaborate on the many roles I play in life, though, it would be necessary to mention the fun moments my daughter and I have spent reproducing episodes of "The Fresh Beat Band," that I have undergone marital counseling from my couch with Dr. Phil, and that I am currently still providing my parents with on-call technical support for the smartphones they decided to upgrade to last month. (They have decided to preserve their flip phones "just in case" it doesn't work out). And as a student, well, I wouldn't be able to survive without media.

Sometimes I feel that I have a love-hate relationship with media. The evolution our society has undergone when it comes to media technology has literally taken me by surprise. Please keep in my mind that I am 30 years of age if I sound a little old-fashioned upon saying this. Sure, 30 is not old, but would you believe that I grew up my entire life without cable television? While my high school friends were discussing trends and choreography they had seen in music videos presented by MTV, VH1, or BET, I was simply saying "I hear that song on the radio all the time." My parents did not purchase cable television until I entered college for fear of overexposure to improper content, nor did I ever own a computer or have internet until I entered college for the first time back in 1998. Actually, everything happened in 1998 -- I also got my first cell phone in 1998. Most people would have owned a couple of desktop computers or laptops by now, but I have not owned more than two desktop computers my entire life until this day. Pretty much everything has happened quite abruptly, and while I don't miss the pay phone days or those days in which I poured out my emotions into an actual paper and went to the post office to deliver it, I do feel like tossing my husband's new android phone out the window when he's checking updates on the Yankees while we are supposed to be having a quality family dinner.