Blog Post #4- Jennifer Athanasatos

     Within this course, one theme we have discussed is media/medium. The term “medium is the message” is mentioned in our lecture. It means that medium is the form of communication we choose. Some examples of this are using social media to communicate, phone calls, texting, and FaceTime. Media/medium is also how the symbolic meaning of communication is conveyed, this can be done through speech, writing, or print. The difference between communication over the phone and on social media compared to talking face-to-face is that you lose the intimacy of the conversation. Speaking rather than talking over the internet allows you to connect with people and communicate better. In this day and age, we use social media to communicate a lot more than we do through speech or writing. According to Couldry and Hepp, there are two dimensions of connection to the media. These two dimensions are communication devices such as the smartphone and communication infrastructure like the internet. Both are prominent mediums of communication because people use both phones and social media to talk to people. I use Snapchat the most to communicate with others. I feel like if Snapchat wasn't the main platform for communication I would not use it as much but because everyone talks over the platform I need to be on it to stay connected with my friends. Instagram is another big platform I find I use a lot for communication. I'm currently doing two group projects for classes and both my group chats are over Instagram. Since social media is so easy to access, I feel like many people have made it a common form of communication. Overall I use social media and the Internet as a medium to communicate more than I use text messages and meeting up with people to speak face-to-face.