Media Consumption

Thursday: TV for an hour and a half. Facebook for 30 min-ish, listening to music while hanging out in my room. No reading.

Friday: Facebook for a little bit- no longer than an hour total throughout the day

Saturday: none besides using my cell phone

Sunday: Watching TV- 90210 (online), a little bit of reading, some movie watching, lakers game on TV

Monday: 2 hours of movie watching

Tuesday: movie watched Harry Potter 2 hours, facebooked, searched the internet for necessary information for an hour

After recording my media consumption for six days, I have realized that at college my media consumption is a lot lower than it is if I were at home back in Minnesota. For one, I watch a LOT less TV at college than I did before I came to college- partly because it was a lot easier at home to watch TV while doing homework because a lot of the time there wasn’t much better to do- since my friends all lived at least 25 minutes away from me, hanging out wasn’t always an option. But at college, all my friends are under a mile radius so why spend time watching TV solo, when you could be hanging out with friends, partying, or going/doing other social events with people. The time I spend watching TV here at Santa Clara is either watching shows/movies with friends, or the occasional online TV watching when I have some time to spare when friends are busy or my homework is done or I just want to relax. At college, I never really have time anymore for my weekly favorite shows like 90210, gossip girl, or any other show I would regularly enjoy at home. There just isn’t time for them anymore to sit down on Monday night at watch new episodes. It’s a bummer, but maybe it just means I don’t care enough about TV to schedule my life around it. Although, I would love to be able to consistently watch new episodes, when they premier, instead of catching up online or waiting to watch re-runs later when I go home. College has definitely impacted my media consumption when it comes to television. I have found time to watch movies at college though, and at least every other day or two days find myself watching at least part of a movie on TV with friends. At college I’m more likely to be found watching movies, than at home where I’d be more likely to watch TV. I think that might mean that at home I have time to watch hours of mindless television, where at college I am more selective and watch interesting movies instead. Like most people my age, I go on the internet to Facebook a lot. Even when not on my laptop i’ll find myself checking my facebook through my phone to stay connected. And when I’m bored can spend a lot of time mindlessly zooming through facebook to pass the time. With a lot of homework though, other events, and time spent with people, my time on facebook is definitely a lot lower than it would be if I had more free time or less things to do. I honestly use it when I’m bored, need a distraction, or feel the need to be updated on my friends/other peoples lives...so I think that might say that to me, facebook doesn’t have real importance aside from entertainment and a way to stay connected with people-- its sole purpose is to spend some time. I think my media diet might say that American society finds time for media proportionate to the amount of time they have to give to it. I’m sure it greatly varies depending on the people, but as a whole, I think a lot of people watch TV, or movies, or “creep” on facebook when they have time to waste or as entertainment (free time). But when people don’t have time, it’s not always important. For example, my mom works sometimes from 6 am-8pm and is gone all day- when she comes home, surfing the web or watching TV aren’t always a priority to her if she doesn’t have the extra time for it. If I had a crazy schedule and only had an extra hour or two to spare in the day, I don’t think I would spend it watching random TV shows or surfing the Web. I would probably want to catch up with friends or sleep. 

It’s really hard to escape media consumption though, because it seems like everything we do or have to do involves some form of technology. I need to use the internet to search things, or submit homework assignments and don’t always realize that I’m using media to do those things. I constantly text with people through out the day to stay in communication and even that to me doesn’t always seem like a media consumption, but it is. I focused most of my blog on the entertainment forms of media consumption like TV, movies, and the internet- and not as much on cell phone usage, my computer, and the other little medias I encounter every day, but they still add time to my day that i’ve spent engaging with media. It would be really hard to track every encounter I had with media in one full week because there is soooo much.