I grew up in rather a conservative Chinese family since I was born. I remember, I was around 4 years old when I was being exposed to this electronic box called television. The moment my father switched on the television, I was so amazed that I could hardly speak. Well, that was what my father told me. From day to day, once I got back from school, the first thing that I would reach for is the television’s remote control. My parents are okay with me watching the television. But, whenever there’s kissing scene being showed in a movie, either my father or mother would sternly told me that it is not at all suitable for me to watch those kind ‘things’. Sometimes they would quickly switch it to the other channel. By that time, I have no idea why my parents wanted to do that. As years went by and I grew older, I slowly get it. There are some kinds of restrictions that every child should follow if they are to watch the television. But, things changed when I grew older. The restrictions aren’t that strict anymore. I was allowed to watch anything and everything which is being aired on the television. Now, my parents no longer filter what I am watching.
As for the newspapers, both my father and mother are Chinese-educated. Therefore, they only subscribe to Chinese papers every month. I didn’t bother to read it because I don’t understand a single word from the Chinese papers. They sent me to an English-medium school after I finished my kindergarten years. That is why I don’t really have the habit of reading newspaper since I was young. But, things slowly change after that. In secondary school, they allowed the students to subscribe to English papers. I would sometimes borrow the papers from my friend and I started off with going to the comic section first, followed by the entertainment news. I didn’t really care about what is really going on in my country or the world, thinking that those news are irrelevant to me. Not only after the Tsunami that occurred in year 2004 changed my behavior towards newspaper-reading. I started following the headlines and the important news and it was really an eye-opener for me.
The internet connection back in the 90’s didn’t really work that well. Even if it worked well, I wouldn’t even get the chance to explore the world wide web. I was not allowed to surf the internet by my father. He thinks that the internet would only drift me away from my studies because he read too many news on how people got addicted to the internet so much to the point that they would not even want to get out from the house. Fearing of the same thing that will probably happen to me, my father did not bother to teach me anything about the internet. Sad case right? That’s how conservative my father was. But, everyone is going to grow up someday. At the age of 15, I would go to a friend’s house and surf the internet. Again, I was so amazed by the wonders of the internet. I secretly created my first e-mail address then. I also created my ‘Friendster’ account which was quite popular a few years ago. From there, I realized that my social circle went uphill. I started befriending the people that I barely know but of course, I have certain restrictions for myself too. When I turned 19, my father gave me full freedom regarding the usage of the internet. That was when I got my first and very own Maxis broadband. I would explore everything on the world wide web into late nights. Still, my father would not say a thing about it. As for now, I am not ashamed to admit that I couldn’t live a day without the internet. Basically, 40% of my life is there. Things regarding my college, assignments, friends, relatives, shopping, emails, you name it. Even my father himself is on Facebook now.
So, that is how I had lived my life as a consumer of media throughout the years and I believe that, things will not stop changing as we all live in a world with almost nothing is impossible now.
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