One Trend at a Time: Media influence on my life throughout the years

The first type of media I can remember having a significant impact on my life came in the form of a huge yellow creature that taught me my ABCs from the other side of my television. I have many memories of watching Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and the rest of the Sesame Street gang as a little girl. I can remember staring wide eyed at the tv each afternoon listening to the overgrown puppet like characters sing songs about friendship, baths, and the color wheel. My favorite tv characters were not only a part of my life through the 1/2 hour show that was on each afternoon, oh no. Sesame Street permiated other areas of my life as well. For my third birthday my grandparent bought me "Read to me Big Bird" He was as tall as me, and had a tape player in his rear end. We would sit together for hours reading as many books as possible. I'd listen to his nasal, yet friendly and familliar voice and flip the pages when he made the magic "bling" sound. Of course along with my reading pal, I also had cookie monster crackers as treats after lunch (those were oh so tasty,) Bert and Ernie rubber duckies for bath time, and a pink dress with the words "Elmo loves me" on the front. I can't imagine a type of Sesame street parafanalia that I didn't have as a child. I guess you could say I (and perhaps to an extent, my paretns) was obsessed!

Since childhood, the types of media I have been interested in have changed. At age 11 I became obsessed with the Spice Girls, played Mario Brothers for hours on end, and Clarissa from the Nic series "Clarissa explains it all" was my hero. When I was 13 I watched Boy meets world, and imagined having a relationship just like Cory and Tapanga's. I also became a frequen AOL user. AOL was especially helpful in the eighth grade when I dumped my first boyfriend over an instant messager conversation. Now, media infiltrates my life in more ways than ever before. I always have my cell phone with me, check my facebook constantly, and wouldn't survive long bus trips without my mp3 player.

This list is just a short recap on the types of media that have been an influence on me. Although the avenues of media that I was exposed to or interested in changed over time, it has always been a part of my life, something unescapeable, something that I identify myself with. As I have gone through and listed these few types of influences I find myself remembering the different events of my life that happened within the same time frame. It's kind of crazy that media effects my life to the extent that the media I am exposed to, for better or worse, can become a part of who I am.