Meyrowitz SPOTTED

11/9/09
So a couple of days ago, before the blogging adventure began, everyone entered media class and wished Jake a Happy Birthday. I felt terrible for not knowing it was his birthday (and everyone else did)! I then discovered that facebook had alerted the others in my class of the occasion. I didn’t have enough time to check facebook that day and so I missed saying Happy Birthday to Jake. However, since that day, I find myself checking my Facebook more often, in hopes to make sure I do not miss any other occasions. While I am on Facebook, I find myself more likely to talk to friends that are away at college. When I talk to one of them, I feel as if I only live around the block from him/her. I am involved in their lives through facebook. This became clear when I bumped into my friend’s mom in the library near my house. My friend is away at the University of Rhode Island. The logical thing to talk about with my friend’s mom would be her daughter because that is what we have in common. But I already knew that my friend was having the time of her life at college, she couldn’t go home by bus because it was too expensive and that she has a massive amount of pharmacy homework to complete by the end of the week, which means that she will be spending her entire Sunday in her university’s library. What was left to talk about with her mom? There was nothing that I didn’t know that was going on in her daughter’s life. In fact, I had a feeling after talking to her mom, that I knew more about my friend’s college life than her mother. This is because facebook allows me to keep a constant conversation with her. We do not have to find a convenient time for the both of us to talk on the phone. Whenever one of us has a spare moment, all that is necessary is a quick message on facebook. That is when I came to the realization that I had spotted Meyrowitz’s idea that media allows us to communicate in a whole new level. I can be a part of my friends’ life even though she does not live near me right now. Thus, Meyrowitz’s idea that media changes access by allowing individuals to be there for each other, even though he/she is not physically there, is illustrated through my always-in-touch electronic communication.