I am an art student. Specifically, a media arts major. As art students, we always feel like we need to justify why our majors are not just a waste of time and money. We are generally looked down on because rather than entering one of the STEM fields, we will be doing jobs that are generally seen as less important to society.
I think that's a load of crap. While other fields of study, like the STEM fields, health care and such are definitely significant to our modern society, that doesn't automatically make the arts or media arts completely worthless. Guess what? Art is pretty much everywhere. Who designs your clothes, shoes and accessories? Who designs or screen prints T-shirts that are found in pretty much every store or mall? Who designs logos or labels on the products you buy, or creates advertisements for companies and stores? Who takes the photos for advertisements, newspapers, and media sources? Who edits the videos that you watch on Youtube, or the movies you watch, or even advertisements on television? Who animates cartoons, or the animated movies your kids watch all the time? Who creates the amazing pieces of art that you see in museums and art exhibits? What about the interfaces on every piece of technology you use? Or the tattoos that stay on your skin for an entire lifetime? That's right, art students. I could go on and on because there are so many things that we contribute to society that a lot of people don't even think about.
Sometimes I feel like being an art student will, at the most, get me a job at McDonald's. I feel like I'm incompetent because I'm terrible at math and science. It feels as if I'll barely make enough money to survive, compared to the people who will be doctors, lawyers, scientists, and engineers. I occasionally forget how many things I can actually do with the arts because even though art is everywhere, hardly anyone talks about how important it really is. It's not just something anyone has the skills to do.
I am an art student. I am not stupid because I'm not into science or mathematics, I am not useless to society, and I'm tired of being told to "be realistic", "get a real major", or "stop wasting my time and money" at college. I'm tired of seeing people seem disappointed or unimpressed when I say I'm a media arts major instead of nursing or engineering. My skills are useful too; people don't always realize that.
Before you say that art students will only ever have minimum wage jobs when they graduate or that they are worth less to modern society than students in other fields of study, remember that we are the ones who design basically everything around you. Products, labels, user interfaces, movies, commercials and advertisements, clothes, and too many other things to even count, are all made by the art students you say are "useless". Keep that in mind.
