Yue, 5
Media Consumption: Every day
Favorite Media: Paw Patrol/Peppa Pig/Patty Shukla Kids TV
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
When Yue was two years old, she liked dancing with Patty Shukla on YouTube. Since she was 3 years old, Yue started to watch cartoons such as Peppa Pig. Currently, her favorite TV show is Paw Patrol.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
Because of COVID, Yue and her school had to use video meetings for online classes. For the past two years, Yue has been using Voov Meeting and DingTalk to take lessons from pre-school and practice dance with teachers.
What do you use media for?
Yue mostly uses media for learning and entertainment. For one, due to COVID, Yue took advantage of media to take classes with her classmates and teachers from pre-school. For another, she also uses media to watch cartoons. This also helps her to learn English.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
Yue said her favorite thing about media is that she can watch the stories of dogs in Paw Patrol. Her least favorite thing about media is that her mom turns it off after 1 hour.
What is one thing you want the people who create the media you like to watch/play/interact with to know?
To make each episode of cartoons longer so that others will not notice how many episodes have passed.
What media are you using more now because of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Yue started to use Voov Meeting, Zoom, and Dingtalk more often as tools to have video meetings with her class. She uses WeChat and Zoom as a form of communication with friends and teachers, chatting online with play dates and taking dance classes when school was closed.
Where do you get most of your information to learn more about changes during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., news, internet, parents, etc.)?
Yue gets most of the information about COVID-19 from her parents.
What media has been helping you stay busy/stay calm during the COVID-19 pandemic?
As a 5-year-old girl, Yue does not understand much about the anxiety and frustration people have regarding COVID-19. She is busy with the activities that school and her parents have planned for her. She took online lessons when the school was closed, and she was occupied with YouTube Kids and Disney movies at home when there were lockdowns. She also does crafts with online tutorials, such as making puzzles or doing paper folds.
What lessons have you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic?
It is important to stay healthy and follow the rules (such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing).
Have you learned anything about how you use media and technology because of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Yue thinks media brings convenience to people. She thinks it is amazing that she can communicate with others through video even though they are physically apart. Yue also feels that she had learned new knowledge because of media, such as sharing.
Interviewed by: Annie Qingyang Li, UCLA Student