My Digital Media Access

Before reading the Keywords for Media Studies selection on “Access” I had taken for granted the ability I had to be a productive consumer of digital media and technology. It was always a given that I could log onto the internet or use of cell phone so long as I payed my bills. I had never really given much thought to how important the wording of "Access" vs. "Accessing" is. Up until I had read this reading I usually thought of my media consumption as my right to have access to the digital media world. This is because the world I am surrounded by is saturated with consumption of Digital media that is so engraved in my day to day life that the actually luxury that using digital media is sometimes fails to be a prominent thought in my mind. For me the access to Digital media has always been enough because from there accessing it has never been a challenge and therefore I have always equated my access to digital media as my ability to actively participate within it. I have often found myself being frustrated because my accessing of digital media has been disrupted by poor internet connectivity or low phone battery power, I know know that this does not mean that my access to digital media is revoked, only my active accessing is, however to me, as someone who is able to actively participate in all forms of digital media my inability to actively access constantly blurs the lines between active and passive access.

I never thought much about how that access may not be universal, particularly for those who have disabilities that makes using digital media challenging. For these individuals the access to digital media is not the given like it is for me, but is more of a privilege because it is not every device or digital experience that they are able to interact with.