What Is The Meaning Of Life?

Welcome to the second unit of the senior humanities class "Journalism." In this unit, called "photography." we explored the photographic side of journalism. We spent a lot of time looking at influential photographs. We discussed how these photos influenced the public and how we take photos today. One of my favorite assignments was when we picked one photograph from each decade of the 20th century. I really enjoyed looking through photographs of the past century. It was interesting to see the historical events captured in influential photographs. For this unit's field experience, we went to Columbia College to sit in on an introductory journalism class. We were able to learn more about journalism while getting to see what a college class looks and feels like. We also participated in Chicago Ideas Week. For this action project, we had to interview someone about what they thought the meaning of life is. I had some trouble trying to figure out who I should interview, but I thought my sister would be a good candidate. I wanted to ask her about what the meaning of life is for a young teenage girl growing up in the era of social media. I interviewed her and then took a picture of her. I think she had some very interesting answers for such a young person.

“What is the meaning of life?” This question has been asked forever. Since the beginning of time, people have questioned their existence on this earth. Some cultures put it up to higher powers. We were put on this earth by something bigger than us. This is how religions and cultures are formed. We are constantly questioning why we are here. In this day and age, social media has become that god. Teenagers today are constantly being shown expectations online. This can be detrimental to a young person’s image of themselves. So to a young girl in today’s society, what is the meaning of life to them? How can they figure it out through all the expectations and pressure from society?

Meredith is a 14-year-old girl from Oak Park. She has mostly grown up in this area with her mother, father, and 18-year-old sister. This fall, Meredith started her freshman year at Oak Park-River Forest High School. She is an active teenager with lots of friends. Like most teenagers, Meredith spends most of her free time on her phone. Whether it be Instagram, where she posts selfies, Tick tock, where she dances, or Snapchat where she spends countless time snapping her friends. Of course, she spends time off of her phone. Meredith likes to do makeup and hair, and she figure skates at the local rink. In general, she is a very normal teenage girl.

One night, I sat down with Meredith at the kitchen table. She was excited to be interviewed. “I’m going to have some good answers,” she told me. I started with the big question. “What is the meaning of life? She sighed. Then she started to tell me. “Huh. This is kind of strange. I honestly think the meaning of life is just to try your hardest to be happy in whatever situation you’re in.” I asked her to elaborate. “The meaning of life isn’t to be rich or to be poor, or to be sad or happy. You can be rich and successful and still be sad. That is just as bad of a situation as being poor.” I liked the direction our conversation was going. She seemed to really be speaking from the heart.

I then changed the tone of the conversation. I asked her how she thinks social media influences teens in either a good or a bad way. I could see her really think about her answer. “In the way of happiness?” she asked. “Sure,” I said. “How do you think it influences people like you?” She took a deep breath. “I think it’s both negative and positive. I think it’s a spectrum. I personally am not influenced negatively, but I know that it can damage self-confidence. For me, social media is a way to connect with my friends who do make me happy.” I was intrigued by this comment. Today, there are so many articles and news stories on how social media is ruining our lives. I had never seen this perspective from a young girl. Social media keeps her connected with her friends. It’s not always a bad thing.

At this point, I wanted to ask her about herself. I wanted to know how her meaning of life affects her. She was now up and started cooking for herself. I continued to ask her questions. “How do you practice the values according to your definition of the meaning of life? I asked. She opened the fridge and paused. “It’s hard.” She said still facing away from me. “I’m not going to lie and say I’m happy 24/7. Some things that you don’t feel like doing are beneficial, but I try to take care of myself. Self-care matters. I try to remember that even if it’s just the tiniest thing. Even if it means being greedy, so be it! Buy yourself that thing you want, even just taking a bath or lighting a candle. Do it.”

Meredith is now at the stove, making rice for her dinner. I started to wrap up the conversation. I asked her a couple of final questions. “Has the meaning of life changed for you?” I asked. “Hmmm.” She pondered. “Well, when I was little I just wanted to be rich and famous, or a princess,” she said laughing. “But when you get older - I’m not even very old,” she added, “It becomes slightly different but more realistic. I still want to be successful, but not in the princess type of way” she laughed. I decided to wrap up the interview with one final question. “What version of yourself lies in your head?” She thought for a moment. “Not the best!” she exclaimed. I was surprised. She had seemed very confident in herself this whole time. “I guess it depends. Some days I wake up and am having a good day, and other days you're just not feeling it. There’s envy. That can strive from social media.” “What are you envious of?” I asked. “You see a lot of things. I can’t even think of an example. Everything from looks, to material items. It’s hard to see something you really want but can’t have.”

Our conversation was still going, and I decided to ask one more quick question. I asked her to describe a happy memory that correlated with her meaning of life. She immediately had an answer. “This summer in Bayfield. Just being able to go down to the dock on a sunny day and do whatever I want is so nice. It is really a place I feel happy and free.”

CM "Happiness" (2019)

We then went into her room to take some pictures. She sat down on her bed and I used my phone to take pictures. I wanted to capture the essence of her happiness, but it felt staged, so I took a picture of her smiling. We tried a few different angles. I decided on the angle from the bottom. It looked the best of all the pictures. For lighting, I used artificial lighting. Meredith has a ring light for her makeup, so I set it up behind the camera. We used the neutral light setting so she didn’t look too warm or cool in the moderately dark room. I crouched down under the ring light to take the photo. I used my iPhone. Aperture is the amount of light let through the lens. This affects how much exposure and depth are in the photograph. The lower the aperture, the higher the exposure and vice versa. This photograph has a lower aperture. This exposure is fairly high, and Meredith is in focus, while the background is out of focus. The shutter speed measures the length of time the sensor on the lens is exposed to light. For this picture, I used my iPhone. I have no way of telling what the shutter speed is. In general, the faster the shutter speed on a moving object, the blurrier it will be. Since Meredith was not moving, the shutter speed was probably in the middle. The rule of thirds is a rule of photography where the photo is divided into thirds both ways. The subject of the photo should be at the intersection of one of these lines. In this photo, the center of Meredith’s face is along one of the lines. To me, this photo is subjective. A subjective photo refers to a photo that captures how the photographer/subject sees the world. The photo of Meredith shows how happy she is both from my perspective, and her perspective.

I have another picture of Meredith that I think captures her meaning of life more than the picture I took of her. This picture was taken in Bayfield, on the dock that she described in the interview. This picture was taken by her friend one morning on the dock. She truly is happy in this picture, and according to Meredith, happiness is the meaning of life.

RG "Dock" (2019)

In conclusion, this was a challenging project. It's always more challenging when you are relying on another person. I really like the end product. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough content, but she had a lot to say! In the future, I would interview her before I started the project. I started writing before I actually interviewed her. It maybe would have made things go a little smoother. In the end, i am happy and proud of this project.