Growing up I had always watched a great deal of television and movies. I would absorb my self into the lives of various characters and aspire to be just like them. Whether it was Sailor Moon, or Sandy from Grease, I did all that I could to be like them and have them in my lives as much as possible. In Kindergarten I had to have everything Sailor Moon themed. I owned every Sailor Moon doll, poster and sticker. My twin sister and I even had a Sailor Moon jean jacket that we refused to take off.
In grade one, Grease was my ultimate obsession. My sister and I would spend hours watching the movie over and over again from start to finish, memorizing every word and later acting the out the songs from the movie. We had watched that movie so many times that our parents threw the movie out.
Not only was I crazy about these shows, all my friends were. The obsession with Sailor Moon, Grease and many other television shows/ movies catered to girls, led my friends and I to compete with one another. All young girls are naturally very imaginative and will pretend that they are various characters from popular television shows/movies, and often girls would compete to be the main character. This was the issue that I had with my friends. We ALL wanted to be Sailor Moon when we played “Sailor Moon”, and we ALL wanted to be Sandy from Grease when playing “Grease”.
Choosing who plays what character made my friends and I pick out each other’s flaws, making everyone feel really bad about them selves. This led to me to have many insecurities about my self, and often would give me the feeling that I was not good enough. Even from a young age it made my friends and I, and I am sure many other young girls, criticize and judge everything about them selves. When choosing who should play what character, we would all point out the reasons why one another should play certain character and why one another should not play others. At the age of 5 and 6, children do not have much discretion and do not understand appropriate social edict, therefore they tend to say what they are thinking out loud, whether it is bad or good. They would not hold back from saying negative things to one another such as ” You cannot be Sailor moon because sailor moon is skinny and you’re big”, or ” you cannot be Sandy because you have black skin and curly hair and Sandy has white skin and blonde hair”.
Looking back, media is no different for children then it is for teenagers and adults. We live in a society that is obsessed with being on top, in charge, and being the best looking. We do all that we can to fit in and stay on top. Even at a young age, children are striving to be better than anyone else and be the most popular and best looking. The media has a huge influence on our lives and the people we are.

My earliest childhood media memories are notably different from the other blogs that I have read. As a child, I spent every weekend from Saturday morning to Sunday evening, at my grandparents house. My grandmother was my best friend and arguably the best cook that I have ever known.
My parents were always very cautious about what types of media they would expose me to, so my weekend getaways were always a free-for-all in front of the television. My grandmother did not believe in such rules, or perhaps, just didn’t feel the need to enforce them. Regardless of the many shows that I watched on those weekends, the only one that I remember, and that left a true impact on me, was my grandmother’s favorite show, that I would watch intently with her, Cooking with Julia Child.
I suppose it may have seemed odd that a 5 year old would be so enthusiastic to watch the preparation of French cuisine. Watching that show is what has stuck with me throughout all these years. In addition to watching the show, my grandmother and I were also avid cooks, and spent much of our time in the kitchen, like Julia. As a little girl, I would jokingly walk into the kitchen with my nose in the air and in a snobbish, British accent, remind my grandmother that the most important thing was that her hands must be “impeccably clean” just like Julia did at the beginning of every show.
I still love to cook, thank to my grandmother of course, Julia.
I suppose that in this case, this form of media showed me how I was able to learn as a result of exposure to the media. It demonstrated how not all media rots your brain like many of the shows that children and teens watch today (I won’t mention examples in fear of getting a virtual scolding from fans). Watching cooking shows, which I still do today, shows me how the media can help me to better myself by teaching me how to do new things.
I’m sure you can all guess how excited I was when the movie “Julie and Julia” came out this summer, I saw it, it was great and I recommend it to all (cooks and the culinary challenged alike!)

Similar to Tania and Adina, my fondest memories of the media as a child would have to be Barney. I would sit in front of the television; holding my security blanket in one hand, and sucking my thumb with the other hand. I loved all the songs they sang and would always sing the “I love you, you love me” song to my family. When my parents took me to one of the largest toy stores in New York and allowed me to choose one toy, I chose a big talking Barney. After the purchase, we went to McDonald’s to get a happy meal. My dad carried me in his arms as I held onto my newly bought Barney toy. Coincidentally, there was another little girl holding on to a Barney, in her daddy’s arms in the line beside ours. When the girl saw me with my Barney, she looked down at her Barney and boastfully said, “My Barney’s furry.” According to my parents and two older brothers, I was very irritated by her statement and immediately responded to her loudly by saying, “Your Barney can’t talk!!!” I then proceeded to press the buttons that made Barney sing and talk. The girl was speechless and I was so proud and happy to be the owner of that special Barney.

In response to the blog’s question, media impacted me quite a bit as a child. It impacted me in the sense that I tended to buy the stuffed animal version of my favourite tv characters. Such as Barney, the doll Molly from the Big Comfy Couch, Mr. Bean’s teddy bear, tickle me Elmo from Sesame Street, and the list goes on.

Although I watched quite a bit of tv when I was young, things have changed over the years as I don’t watch any tv at all anymore. I don’t follow any popular shows such as Gossip Girl, Friends, The OC, etc. I believe this is due to the fact that I always had dance class in the evenings when most of the shows were played on TV. However, just recently, I started watching Glee and I am absolutely in love with it!

My first memories of the media would have to be Barney.When i was little my sister and I would wake up every morning around seven and drag our dad down stairs with us to watch Barney. We were obsessed. I loved all the fun sing along songs and dances. Looking back today i learnt alot from Barney. I learnt how to play well with friends, i learnt to clean up after my self ( because of his clean up song), and i learnt about the different cultures of the world.

Looking back now, even at the young age of 2 or 3 I was obsessed with media. I refused to miss an episode of Barney. Today the media has a huge impact on our society. Rather than going outside to play, we are inside sitting by the TV waiting for our favorite TV shows to start ( in my case three of them are back to back.) This obsession is a big part of our lives and take up a great deal of time which should be spend on more important things.