1. Your Media Diet
Your task for this assignment is to record your media consumption for 5-7 days straight. Take note of how many hours you spend reading, watching television, using the Internet, or engaging with any other forms of media. While you do not have to give an exhaustive account of every TV show you watch or website you visit, do note what types of books, TV, websites, etc. that you consume. You can also describe which particular shows you watch or sites you visit daily/on a regular basis. After listing your media diet for each day of the week (length of time, types of media), you should provide a brief analysis. Questions you might address in your analysis include: What does your media diet say about you? How do you think it might compare to the media diets of other people your age? What might your media diet suggest about American society more broadly? Are there changes you'd like to make regarding your media consumption? How might your social location influence your media intake?
My media diet for the past 5 days:
Wednesday February 16
3 hours were spent checking email on gmail and Facebook, looking through friend's profiles and pictures, 2 hours were spent looking through the New York Times, looking at box office tickets for Sharks games and a play and searching for full episodes of Vampire Diaries and Pushing Daisies.
Thursday February 17
Internet was out so 4 hours were spent total checking Facebook, email and watching Vampire Diaries, reading my cousin's blog and looking up assignments in Camino.
Friday February 18
3 hours spent browsing iTunes and finally watching a movie off iTunes movie rentals, 7 hours spent reading NY Times articles for a class, checking Facebook and email and watching Vampire Diaries on Megavideo
Saturday February 19
9 hours total spent online checking email, Facebook and filling out duty blog and watching 2 episodes of Vampire Diaries on Megavideo.
Sunday February 20
12 hours total spent listening to Pandora, researching article for a paper checking Facebook, writing a blog and checking and sending emails and watching Vampire Diaries on Megavideo.
While I would like to think that I don't spend that much time looking on Facebook and searching the internet compared to my friends who scan sites like people and the Huffington post daily, I realize that I check email and Facebook roughly 10-45 times a day. Even though I usually go on for no more than ten minutes in between class etc, I realize that all the little times added up quickly.
On the whole, I think teenagers and college students spend an average of 10-20 hours online a day, staying connected to others, up to date on news and watching television online. Compared with my suitemates, I do not think I go online quite as often as they do. I do not do a lot of online shopping or read a lot of entertainment sites. However, I have to go online of CF things almost as frequently as they read the Huffington Post and watch Youtube videos so I guess it about equals out. I also check email probably 3x times often as they do but again, that is largely work and school related. On the whole, I probably send between 10-60 emails a day to residents, different supervisors, my family, professors and peers which seems unusually high. I think in this way, my media diet reflects the fact that I am extremely busy and over scheduled as a college student. I think I watch less tv as a whole than other students but this might be simply a result of the fact that I am currently obsessed with the Vampire Diaries only and I can't watch more 72 minutes at a time.
I think as a whole, my media diet reflects a trend in American society that relies on technology more and more for the most every day tasks. Instead of using yellow pages now, I look up addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers etc online. Instead of a calling a friend to see how they are doing, I skype or Facebook them. I think technology now a days is allowing us to be more connected to others and the world around us but is simultaneously giving us an excuse to spend the better part of 24hrs online and in front of a computer.
In the future, I hope that I can become better at limiting my time on the internet to doing exactly what I need to do instead of wasting time pursuing Facebook, news papers and video. Hopefully this will allow me to disengage and get back to real life faster!
I think that your media diet is similar to many other college students. Most poeople do not have time to watch television at specific times, and therefore use the internet to view the media sources. Also, electronic communications have taken precedence from phones and personal communications. We are more connected overall, but on a more superficial level. It seems like the technologies that were origonally intended to make our lives easyer simply increase expectations. The deadlines are more brutal and there is a focus on the quantity and efficiency of a work, as opposed to the inherent quality. I agree with the assumptions of your blog post, in regards to being focused and not waisting time.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog! It was very well done, brought up numerous interesting points, and incorporated many ideas and thoughts from class. The media diet post was was favorite. I especially enjoyed this because I think it's so interesting to see how people's media use differs from person to person. I think it was a very interesting point when you talked about how the Internet allows us to be so much more connected, yet we're still only connecting with a screen and not actual people the majority of the time. This blog had many similar ideas as mine and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done!
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