Read the excerpt posted on myCourses from Jac Holtzman’s book Follow the Music: The Lifeand High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture. Holzmandescribes always believing he was born to the wrong parents, but that he escaped through themovies. Here’s a key passage:

My only other escape was far more to my liking—the movies. The images on thescreen showed characters of stature, grace, and romance: the world the way Iwished it could be. From my bedroom window, if I craned my neck just so, intoview would come the Trans-Lux theater, which changed films weekly and gave youa free pass on your birthday. I haunted the place.

In this essay, you need to similarly look back at your early use of media and also consider howmedia still today impact your daily life and social relationships. At first, it might be useful toconsider how media impact you today, but then trace back to your earliest use of media andexamine what media provided in relation to your non-mediated childhood memories.

Some questions to consider might be the following (you should answer at least four of these):

 How did your media use connect you to other people?

 How did media separate or isolate you?

 Did you discuss your media use with others, especially parents (were there limits,policies, etc.)?

 In terms of how you perceive media compared to your current and more nuancedunderstanding of how media are constructed, how did you perceive media differentlywhen you were younger?

 Looking back, do you wish your engagement with media had been different?