• by Amanda , May 10, 2007

I hasten to make any major generalizations about my age group’s media usage. You have those who buy/sell/create/destroy/live/breath media. Then there are the Amish. And then there is me: a self-professed and proud media parasite.

I fall somewhere in the middle. I consume a lot of media, but purchase very, very little of it. In fact, the only media I pay for is ¼ of my house’s cable bill and my cell phone. This might seem typical but considering the sheer amount of media I expose myself to, it’s hard to believe that I spend so little.

We watch a lot of DVDs in my house. My roommates and I are all really busy, so we watch some of our favorite shows when they come out in box sets. I feed off of these collections of old TV shows and movies because I just don’t buy DVDs. In fact, the two DVDs I own were purchased for me by my boyfriend. I’ve never bought one for myself. We rent a lot of DVDs, but that’s because they’re all $1 at the video store.

I love my computer. But, I bought it three years ago and haven’t changed anything on it except adding a $5 copy of Microsoft FrontPage for a class. Oh, and I downloaded sypware protection from a free online site.

The last CD I purchased was John Mayer’s Continuum, but I rarely- if ever- buy CDs. I rip a lot of music from my friend’s collections.

Even my iPod, a piece of media I love and use everyday, was a hand-me-down from my brother, and I have yet to change any of the downloaded music it arrived with. Obviously, I don’t buy music or videos on iTunes; I’m not even sure I know how to use iTunes properly.

I don’t think my parasitic existence it too abnormal. I can’t believe too many college students buy all of the media they use, and that’s not because they all find free stuff online.