Through the Eyes of My Media
7:00am: My phone begins to buzz, as my alarm goes off. I normally snooze it a couple times before I pick up my phone and scroll through Instagram or check messages I received overnight. I know I shouldn’t start my mornings looking at my screen but it’s really hard to stop. After scrolling for a bit, I do my morning devotions which consists of reading the Bible.
7:30am: Normally, I get ready while listening to music through my Spotify app. Lately, I’ve really been into a band called Flor. They have a laid-back, west coast vibe that is perfect to get you in the mood for a productive day.
8:00am: I hit the gym and only use my phone for music to hype me up for my workout. While walking on the treadmill, there are several TV’s playing different stations. I normally don’t focus or exclusively watch them, but sometimes they catch my eye and I will get distracted. Today, Grey’s Anatomy was playing and I was reminded why I don’t necessarily care for the show.
9:15am: I drive to the studio to get ready for ballet class. (I’m a ballet dancer by the way.) Anytime I’m driving, I always have my phone hooked up to my car speakers so I can listen to my music. I normally don’t listen to the radio.
10:00am: Ballet class begins and the only media I consume for the next hour and a half is the classical music played for us in class.
12:00pm: I get home from class and hop in the shower, then I eat lunch. I scroll through Instagram, send Snapchats, and look at TikTok for a bit before I begin working on school.
12:30pm: I try to set aside a good chunk of my day dedicated to school. This consists of watching lectures, writing discussion posts, reading and sending emails, taking notes, and submitting assignments. I also do a lot of research and read on the web while working on my laptop. I like to always have instrumental music going because it helps me stay focused but not just be working in silence. I particularly love movie soundtrack music and have a Spotify playlist that is almost 6 hours long with my favorite study songs.
3:30pm: I take a break from school and eat a snack, while once again scrolling through Instagram. I really need to try and not aimlessly scroll so much. Then I head to Starbucks.
4:00pm: At work, we aren’t supposed to be on our phones. So I rarely touch my phone unless I need to look at the calendar in order to date something or set a timer for tea or coffee. During my shift, we get a 10 minute break where I normally go on my phone checking various notifications. Sometimes I bring a book to read, but today I didn’t.
9:00pm: I get home around 9pm and grab some food and sit on our couch with my roommate. We watch part of Season 3 Stranger Things. We are currently re-watching the series so that we are ready for Season 4 when it comes out on May 27th.
10:00pm: I shower and then get into bed where I again scroll on my phone taking in all the unnecessary and ultimately overwhelming posts and opinions that are on all my social media apps. I’ve been trying to be better about screen time in the evening before bed. So, even after I went on my phone, I tried to read for a short time. I’ve been reading through Dune which is very interesting. Once I can’t keep my eyes open any longer, I hit the lights at about 10:30pm.
This is not my first time creating a 24-hour media diary, but I’m not sure my media use has changed that much. It’s really difficult when you know what you want to be doing with your time and then you waste so much of it scrolling on your phone. I’ve done many digital detoxes before but it’s very hard to stay off my phone and very easy to fall back into bad habits. One idea I had over the course of recording my media use was to write in a journal every time I want to go on my phone.
After this assignment, I realized most of my media comes from my phone or my computer. Additionally, it’s really hard to keep track of every single media usage that I look at on my phone, because according to screen time app, I picked my phone up 103 times today. That’s a lot! Too many for my liking, so I will definitely be trying to cut that number down in the coming weeks.
Personally, I don’t follow the news on a daily basis. Although, after this week’s readings, I know I need to me more media literate by actively looking at different news sources and asking those key questions to get to the truth. One credible source that I trust is SmartHerNews on Instagram. Jenna, the owner and founder, is an amazing journalist that really gets down to the facts of the matter without a lot of bias or sway towards either side. Honestly, she gives me hope that journalism and the news are not all lost.