Over the past few months, I’ve realized just how much of an impact excessive media usage has had on my life. As a result, I’ve been making efforts to be more intentional about the media I’m consuming. Because of this, I was excited to audit 24 hours to see how my media diet looks. I should note that I completed this audit on a Saturday, so my consumption was a bit lighter than it would be on a typical weekday.
9:30 AM — I was up late last night doing homework and reading for the classes I’m taking this term, which meant I slept in a bit this morning. Because I sleep with my phone plugged in on my nightstand, I have a bad habit of reaching for it first thing in the morning.
Like most days, I scan my email, flag important messages, and delete/unsubscribe from others. Spending a few minutes deleting and unsubscribing has helped me keep my inbox manageable.
Then I spend a few minutes checking Facebook. I am in the middle of preparing for a big move cross-country, which has meant selling off the vast majority of my furniture through the Facebook Marketplace. I have two people picking items up around noon, so I open Facebook Messenger to shoot off a confirmation that we’ll still be meeting.
11:00 AM — After getting ready for the day, I begin taking a peek at some of today’s news headlines. I read a few articles, including “Amazon Has Ceded Control of Its Site. The Result: Thousands of Banned, Unsafe, or Mislabeled Products” from The Wall Street Journal, and “With the global economy slowing and the U.S.-China trade war escalating, Trump arrives at G-7 with a list of grievances” from The Washington Post.
I’m always looking for ways to “hack” how I consume news. I’ve found that using Apple’s News app helps me reference a wider variety of sources and thus, different perspectives. I was using individual apps like CNN and the New York Times for a little while but realized that I was missing out on many other publications and subsequently, different perspectives.
11:30 AM — I sit down, open my computer, and pull up Google Drive, which is where I keep the majority of my school-related documents. I am also using Google Docs to write the initial draft of this blog post. I spend about 45 minutes setting up the document and writing down my media usage so far this morning. After a while, I’m interrupted by a Marketplace buyer stopping by to pick up an area rug.
1:30 PM — I decide to take a short break from packing and sit down with my iPhone. I click on my “social media” folder of apps and open up LinkedIn. Because I’m in the middle of a job hunt, I’ve been trying to be more active on the platform. I scroll through my feed and stop to read a few posts from Fortune and Refinery29.
3:00 PM — My husband and I head out to run an errand, and I wait in the car while he deals with return our cable box and canceling our internet. While waiting, I put on the new Taylor Swift album and listen to a few songs while scrolling through Instagram. I like several photos and then tap through Stories for a few minutes. My husband, while waiting in line inside, tags me in a post about the new Star Wars poster that dropped today. We’re both huge pop culture enthusiasts and often send each other posts like this one.
4:00 PM — Back home, I make myself an afternoon snack and open Facebook. I spend a few minutes scrolling through the Facebook page for Disney’s fan club, D23. There is an expo happening this weekend, which has meant announcements on upcoming movies (like Star Wars) and their new streaming platform, Disney+. I watch a trailer for Lady & The Tramp, the new Mandalorian series coming to Disney+, and read a post about a new ride at Walt Disney World’s Epcot.
As we were sitting on the couch, my husband asked if I was familiar with the “Wilhelm Scream,” which is a stock sound effect used in over 416 films. This led us down the rabbit hole of watching a four-minute compilation on YouTube of the scream in various movies.
10:00 PM — After a long few hours of cleaning and packing, it’s finally time to relax. The television’s been on throughout the evening, mostly playing several episodes of How I Met Your Mother streamed through Hulu. We subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime and usually choose a show or movie from one of these platforms to end our nights.
10:30 PM — I lay down in bed with my laptop and scroll through Twitter for a few minutes, though nothing exciting catches my eye enough to engage with or retweet. While another episode of HIMYM comes on, I open Google Drive to finish writing down the rest of today’s media usage for this blog post before calling it a night. I pick up a copy of In the Woods by Tara French to wind down before going to sleep.
Over the day, I read articles from four news sources. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the least trusted and 10 being the most trusted, each of the sources has varying levels of credibility.
The Washington Post — 10/10: I find myself reading news from The Washington Post on almost a daily basis. From my perspective, their stories are thorough and in-depth.
The Wall Street Journal — 10/10: The WSJ is another publication that I regularly refer to when it comes to my daily consumption of news. Similar to The Washington Post, the WSJ’s stories appear highly accurate and thorough. This is a source that friends and family often read and reference, regardless of their specific political leanings, which shows that it’s overall a trusted source.
Fortune — 7/10: Fortune focuses specifically on business news and industry trends. The reason this publication did not score higher is that it often features opinion pieces and does not distinguish between news and editorials.
Refinery29 — 5/10: Refinery29 mostly publishes opinions and lifestyle pieces rather than reporting on general news or industry-specific updates. I mostly read posts that are pop-culture centric or diary-like stories about the lives of women.
