Growing up in a home where we had no television channels or cable and very few selected videos and DVD's, I was exposed to very little mass media. Also, being home-schooled up until high school exposed me to even less mass media because I was not in a public school around kids who were around lots of mass media in their own homes. The only time I heard about news was from my parents and what they would tell me was going on in the world after they would read the newspaper. I lived a pretty sheltered childhood and was not exposed to much at all until I entered high school. Even in high- school, however, I continued to not be exposed to much mass media, simply because I was too busy with my studies and playing tennis on the school's team and did not have time for much else. After having been exposed to more and more mass media as I have grown older, I am thankful to my parents for sheltering me from it and allowing me keep my innocence for as long as they could. I understand now, after viewing some of today's TV shows, my parent's reasons for not having television in our home and I believe it was a good decision on their part. Although growing up I was often unable to join in conversations my friends would have about various TV shows and movies, etc., I do not feel any more nave or gullible than anyone else and count it as a blessing that I was not exposed to mass media, and all the negativities that come with it, at a young age.
Having the rather abnormal background that I do, this assignment was rather interesting for me because I found that I have not changed my ways very much from what they were when I was younger and living at home. I still to this day continue to not fill my life with much mass media, which I believe is just because that is how I was raised and that is what I am used to. So my day with mass media was not very different from my day without it.
