Media Consumption Chart

After monitoring my media consumption practices I was astounded as to how much I rely on digital forms of media on a daily basis. While seeing the data numerically was eye-opening, it does reinforce past experiences I’ve had with being phoneless for two weeks last year and my current stretch of not having my laptop available for use. The data shows that digital media consumption has become so engrained in my daily life that those disruptions have an astounding effect on my sense of normalcy. While a common sentiment is vocal about reading being a “lost art,” I strongly disagree due to the fact that reading can be done through so many various platforms/mediums and many people have converted from numerous different texts/publications into having everything available to them on one or two devices. I can see some strength to the argument that people are moving away from the medium of print, however, print is always a fail-safe for when (not if) technology ever fails. This assignment has shown me that I have a clear line between informational media and leisure media. In using media as a means for information there is a stronger lean towards print whether it be textbooks/class novels, using technology in order to produce work in print, or even acquiring news (which I split between newspaper articles and the internet). Leisure media proved to be heavily entrenched in the realm of digital mediums such as my Xbox One console, my VERY significant use of the Spotify app, and just typical web, social media, and YouTube browsing. One thing that I feel is important to note about this self-study is that I do use books as a form of leisure media outside the realms of school (which is not accounted for in this particular test sample). A key point that stood out to me is that in those five days I had my Spotify app running for approximately 50 hours! It made me reflect on how certain forms of digital media can be utilized at the same time, making it easy to have a high usage of it. For example, when I’m using a textbook doing homework, I frequently take breaks to go on my phone to check on the latest in my social medias or procrastinate using the internet. The versatility of digital media is what has made it a widespread staple in current society and has really generated a culture that demonstrates a higher propensity to multitask. When I read a novel however, I become so immersed with the message of the book that I’m less likely to fall back on the diversions of technology. When looking back over my log there are remarkably similar numbers for my media consumption for the section of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then similar numbers in the section of Tuesday and Thursday. I attribute this to having a set class schedule and wrestling practice schedule that give my days such a consistent structure. It is definitely amazing how much media fleshes out those free moments in my day. When thinking about books in relation to the bigger picture of media usage I still believe that they are a prominent aspect of my everyday life but there are so many kinds of digital media that it sort of gets overshadowed. Overall, this assignment was very interesting in that tracking media consumption is something not many people do and it is amazing how much those numbers correspond to the discussions we have in class.