Letter Assignment

December 1, 2014

Dear President Obama,

            I am writing this letter to petition a change in our country regarding an issue that is coming to the forefront of our society.  There has increasingly been a link between childhood obesity and media usage.  These negative effects have been researched and proven to exist in the long term.  I believe that the government should encourage parental restriction of media viewing and media usage in order to benefit the upcoming generation of America’s future leaders.

            The percentage of overweight children has tripled in recent years.  Ten percent of children between the ages of two and five are overweight, as well as fifteen percent of children and adolescents ages six to nineteen.  This is a clear and present danger in our society.  Obesity is linked with several chronic diseases, and is related to the number of television hours consumed.

            Longitudinal studies have reported that television time in childhood is strongly related to adult television time later in life.  Television has also predicted a higher body mass index more than thirty years later.  Television and other related media has been linked with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and many more diseases.

            I am a current student at Brigham Young University and have studied the negative effects of media on obesity in my Family Life – Human Development major.  I have learned four mechanisms of the negative effects seen from television viewing and obesity.  The first is displacement of activity.  The more media that is viewed, the more sedentary in nature an individual is.  The second is unhealthy eating habits learned from food advertising on television.  Advertisements increase children’s choices and preference for products, and the main products advertised on television are pre-sugared breakfast cereals, soft drinks, candy, salty snack products, and fast food.  The third mechanism is increased calories from this snacking.  The fourth mechanism is poor sleep habits and an overall lack of sleep.

            As you can see, there are many negative effects that viewing television and consuming a lot of media can have on obesity and poor development.  Please take this information into consideration and take advantage of your influence on the country by educating the public on what they can do.  Encourage parents to take a stand and restrict media for their children, because they are our future and we do not want them to develop these poor habits early on that will last a lifetime.

Thank you,

Maddie Hunt

Home Decorating

We just moved to a cute little place about a week ago, and it's been so great for us!  But now I am wanting to do so many projects and crafts to make our new home cute and perfect.  This is why I love  Pinterest and Instagram - I have found so many ideas for DIY crafts, decorating ideas, and creative ways to make our house look fresh and new.  Media is so great in this way.  I don't have to come up with things like this on my own, but I can see others' ideas and combine those things with what's in my own head to decorate our new basement apartment.  I love it, it's so much fun!  Thanks, Pinterest and Insta :)

Snapchat

Tonight we went to a family dinner at my parents' house.  It was fun to see a few of my cousins and catch up with everyone!  When everyone was just arriving, a few of us started talking about Snapchat.  My sisters were trying to send the ugliest Snapchat possible to each other (from across the room, I might add) and they kept going back and forth.  Pretty soon, everyone was on their phones sending pictures of weird or ugly faces to each other.  I looked up and saw everyone holding their phones up to their faces making funny or ugly faces to a screen.  It made me laugh, because if somebody didn't know what Snapchat was or they didn't have a smartphone, they would be so lost and confused!  Media can bring us closer together, but then it can bring us farther apart because we can all be in the same room but not really interacting face to face!

Media Diary

For one of my Communications classes we had to keep a "media diary" where we logged every type of media we consumed or interacted with over a five day period.  I never realized how much media I use and how big of an influence it has on my life!  At almost any point in the day, no matter what I was doing, there was some type of media that I was consuming.  Here's a five second version of what I recorded in my media diary:

I woke up in the morning and checked my phone.  I had the tv on in the background while I was getting ready for the day.  I listened to the radio on my way to work.  I used my computer to do my job and complete tasks at work.  I went to class and watched my instructor teach using a powerpoint.  I went home and started homework, also on my computer.  I checked Facebook and Instagram on my phone.  I worked on a different homework assignment, this time reading a textbook.  I followed a recipe in a cookbook while making dinner.  I went to the gym with my headphones in.  My husband and I watched a movie before bed.  I checked Facebook and Instagram on my phone again, then used my phone to set my alarm for the next day.

Every part of my day involved media!  Honestly, I was kind of blown away at how much media usage I had recorded in a single day.  Constant media consumption is just a common part of our lives today, whether we realize it or not.  Yes, I probably use more media than the average person because I am a college student and work on the computer for my job.  But still, you just can't avoid media even if you try!

I highly recommend this exercise to anyone who is trying to use media less.  I know I've tried to be off my phone more, but when I actually started paying attention to how much I used all types of media it kind of scared me.  I'm glad that I'm more aware now of my daily media use.  I thought at the beginning of my assignment that keeping a media diary and writing a five page paper was going to be really hard, but I had so much to say that five pages wasn't enough!  Try it for yourself and you will probably be surprised at what you find. :)

Back to Basics

I have really been trying to make it a habit to go to the gym on a regular basis.  I started out just listening to music, but it doesn't entertain me or keep my mind off of exercise for very long.  So then I tried to watch tv shows while I did the elliptical, but it wasn't fast-paced enough to keep me motivated.  I tried reading, listening to conference talks, and other different types of media to keep me energized and motivated at the gym, but in the end I found that what keeps me most motivated is working out with my husband.  We don't have to have a full on conversation while running, but if we go to the gym together and walk the track or do the treadmill next to each other it keeps us going.  It made me think about all the types of media we are surrounded by, and in my case the solution to my gym boredom was not any type of electronics but my husband.  Sometimes I think we need to go back to the basics and not worry about all the devices and technology that we have.  It's given me a nice breath of fresh air. :)

Media and Self-Worth

I've been thinking a lot lately about how big of an influence media has on our confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth.  My Facebook feed is always filled with girls just begging for attention and reassurance that they are beautiful, talented, and have it all together.  They may not realize it, but post after post is negative and girls just obviously want others to compliment them and say good things.  There's nothing wrong with this I guess, but it seems like we are living in an age where everything is public.  Since this is the case, we see everything everybody does and that can take a toll on what we think of ourselves.  People have become so wrapped up in what others think of them, and their self-worth seems to be nonexistent!  It breaks my heart.  I'm not the type of girl to thrive off of what others think of me, and nobody should be like that!  We all care about what others think to some extent, but it shouldn't define us.  Media plays such a big role in this and I just wish it would play a positive role, making us more confident and raising our self-esteem!  But websites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. make this nearly impossible.  Sometimes I have to log off of Pinterest because I find that I feel bad for myself because I don't have the perfect house, fancy meals prepared every night, a gorgeous wardrobe, or the ridiculously fit body that I see on my Pinterest feed.  I think we all just need to take a step back and remember that social media should not influence who we are by comparing ourselves to others.  I wish everyone would realize this!  You are all beautiful, and doing just fine!  You don't have to be Pinterest perfect or have the most Facebook friends to have self-worth.  We are all loved so much by our Heavenly Father and that should be what we care about most. :)

Double Tap

Okay I have an embarrassing moment that relates to media use.  This week I was in the waiting room at a doctor's office, and I picked up a magazine to look at.  While I was flipping through the pages, I found a picture that I thought was really cool.  Almost instinctively, I used my finger and "double tapped" the page.  For those of you who are familiar with Instagram, you know that when you are scrolling down your feed and you see a picture you like, all you have to do is "double tap" and a heart appears showing that you "liked" the picture.  I was so embarrassed that I had physically "double tapped" a magazine image to "like" it, when tapping it wouldn't do any good.  It really make me think that I must be on Instagram a little too much if I double tap things when I'm not even looking at a screen!  Sometimes media use takes over our lives without us even realizing it.  I'm definitely going to be putting my phone down a lot more this week :)