Media Diet

I never realized just how much time I spent using the various forms of media that are available today, especially the internet.  I found that with my phone alone I was logging in hours on the internet each day, then on top of that even more on a computer.  Social networking, Facebook to be specific is where I spent much of my time on the internet, and surprisingly it was mostly during the week.  In my mind, it would make more sense for me to spend more time online over the weekends, but in reality I simply waste hours of my life during the week when I should be doing things such as homework.  Even as I am writing this, I have another tab open on my screen with Facebook so that I can check it every so often to find out if any new pictures have been posted or statuses have been updated.  I am also instant messaging three friends on Facebook.  With so many uses for Facebook, I really believe that I could waste hours upon hours doing absolutely nothing just looking at picture after picture.  

Email is another really big factor, it is something that I check every single day at least three times, both my school email and personal email.  Where Facebook helps me to keep in touch with friends, email is a really good way for me to keep in touch with family.  Where the internet is a big part of my day today, when I am at home, TV is where I spend most of my time.  Television is not a huge factor here at school, simply because I do not have a TV in my room, but I do watch either a show or movie every night on my laptop, either using Netflix or a dvd.  The shows that I watch are all mindless, such as Friends or One Tree Hill, just something to get my mind away form school and take a break while I am laying in bed or getting ready to sleep.

When I added up my total media intake for a weekday, it came out to be between eight and nine hours, on weekends it was only four to five per day.  These numbers seem fairly average to me or for someone my age.  I know many others that spend even more time using media on a daily basis, but there are also some who literally have none.  To me, my media diet says that I like to watch shows that are designed for girls my age and I like to see what my friends are up to on Facebook.  Comparing this to the American society, I would say that it might make me look lazy, but that is only because the amount of time that I spend doing other things are not recorded.  The American society as a whole has taken on a much more laid back style, especially with all of the new technology.  

 If I could change my media diet, I would try to stay off of the internet on my phone. As easy as it is to just click a button, it would dramatically decrease my daily media intake.  

Another huge factor that has an effect on my daily media diet is where I am, first off in college away from friends that I have grown up with.  Staying in touch requires some sort of help from the media, namely the internet, applications like Skype have made keeping in touch so much easier since you can see the person you are talking to.  Although location plays a large role in the amount of media that we consume each day, it can also help get us away from it.  If you could go outside and do something active for a few hours, then you would not be sitting on the couch watching television or typing away on a keyboard.  Today’s overall media intake, I would guess, is close to an all time high, and my numbers seem to follow in line with this.  Now that I am aware of this, I would like to see some of my numbers decrease, and may keep track for another week just to see what happens.