Here it is.. my 24 hour media use!
I start all of my days the same, which includes me using my iPhone as my alarm clock and waking up to whatever song I have picked to be my alarm. The song I currently wake up to is Mulholland Drive by the artist Jake Miller.
Once awake, I typically find myself heading to Twitter to catch up on any news, gossip, or whatever it may be. My timeline is filled with tweets from friends and celebrities, and maybe a few news sites here and there. That is my goal for 2020, to actively follow the news on a local and global level.
I do check my explore page and all of the trending topics picked for me, and the worldwide trends too. I am currently all in on the scandals rocking the MLB at the moment. I recently came across a video that depicts the current chaos of the MLB as a scene from the movie Mean Girls, it earned an automatic like and retweet from me. Right now, the buzz is focused around the Houston Astros and whether or not cheating was involved with their World Series run.
After scrolling through twitter, I then open Instagram, where I follow similar people from twitter. I actively like and comment on Instagram posts, and also post to my story a fair amount, but I do not find myself posting my own pictures. I remember when Instagram first came out, I would try out all of the filter and post pictures of whatever I wanted. Now I have to think to myself “is this really Instagram worthy?” on just about anything I post.
This is where I call it quits on social media so I can take time to get ready. I usually listen to Spotify for an hour or two, scrolling between my liked songs and albums I am currently enjoying. Right now, I have been streaming Harry Styles’ newest album “Fine Line” as well as the album “Malibu Nights” by LANY.
As I go about my day I will randomly check in on my socials. Facebook is my least used app, I do not post anything on Facebook unless it is in a private group I am in with around 100 of my coworkers. However, Facebook is where I tend to read the most of my news. I follow local news stations here in the Quad Cities, such as KWQC and WQAD. I mostly look at the weather and whatever else peaks my interest. Many of my friends share articles from places such as CNN, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. This week I have read a handful of articles from each of these websites, mostly pertaining to politics.
Coming home from work I turn the television on while starting to make dinner. I turn on CNN while making dinner, having it on in the background and listening to it, but not actively watching. Once done cooking I flip to a different channel, or browse channels trying to find a show or movie to watch.
I end my night flipping through my phone and probably looking for something to watch on Netflix or Hulu. Going between all the social media apps can get tiring, so I always look through the trending topics, hoping to find something that peaks my interest.
Overall, I do not view as much news as I would like, it is not everyday that I read articles about politics, finance, or the newest advancements in tech, although that is what I am working towards in this new year. When it comes to how reliable my news sources are, I do not think they are that bad. On a scale from 1 to 10 I would give my overall score a 7 (although that may be generous). The news journals that I read on occasion I would rank at a 7 or 8, while I find them to be reliable, I do find the bias among them at times, which is turns me away from the topic and I lose interest. The news I view on twitter I would rank between a 5 and 6, it all depends on what the topic is and who is tweeting it. If it is a sports related topic from one of the top analysts at ESPN, I would find that quite convincing. So in short, I know I have work to do when it comes to finding more reliable news sources, and I know that with the knowledge I gain from this class I will get there.
