This one goes out to Professor Adam in the Communications Department at BYU. This man is a genius in every form of the word. He recently assigned us a project in which we estimate what we believe our media consumption is, keep track of it for 5 days, then write a reflection paper about how much we actually use all forms of media. This post is a result of said activity.
The area in which I thought I spent the most time was on the Internet, especially during the ‘Media Diary’ week. I don’t know what life would be like without it. Honestly, I tried imagining how I would function without this media outlet. I use it for so much. School alone would be an entirely different experience. I would constantly have to go to the library to find hardcopies of the information I was looking for! It’s not that novel of an idea, but still the complexity of it is overwhelming. Let the critics laugh and scorn, but putting in that kind of effort just to obtain what we now consider easy access information would – for lack of a better term – suck. The world is at our fingertips, literally. For those that love to learn the Internet is a highly valued resource. For those that need social interaction, the Internet is ‘totally awesome’. For those that enjoy online gaming, the Internet is ‘not for noob’s’. The Internet is the new New World, unexplored and untested. I probably use the Internet at least 25 hours a week.
As far as reading of newspapers and magazines goes, I find myself doing so on rare occasions. I don’t subscribe to any paper or magazine and the only time I have either in my hands is when at school if I’m bored and something about it catches my eye. Every once in a while you’ll find some left over New York Times sitting on a table or some Business Magazine. If I see a headline that interests me, I say “What the hay,” and pick it up.
All in all, I would have been surprised if I used media outlets more than 40 hours a week if I was asked before this little case study. The fact of the matter is that I was, and still am, slightly afraid of an abuse of the media. I didn’t want to become so dependant on it that I lost sight of myself. However, after doing this media tracker activity I realized how influential media is in my life.
While reflecting on my media consumption and looking over my diary, one thing struck me like a punch to the gut. I didn’t accurately document all of my media based activities. Although I mentioned when I got on my phone to check out my applications, one thing that didn’t even cross my mind was how often I actually was on my phone checking my email. I have my Google account linked directly to my cell phone, which notifies me every single time I receive an email. This capability is highly important to my social and academic life and allows me to organize my life on-line. It would be impossible now to go back and try to remember every time I got on my phone to check an email. It must have been anywhere between 10 to 50 times a day, each with varied times of activity or use. Some emails I read right there while others I automatically discarded. It has become an ingrained functionality of my life that I completely forgot that could even be documented as a part of my media consumption.
In addition, I occasionally look up the meaning of words or phrases on my phone. I even search for locations or answers to questions friends pose through the Internet on my phone. Again this didn’t even occur to me as I was participating in the media diary experiment, but is a recent revelation.
The above realization is a prime example of the media dependency theory. I honestly don’t know how I would function without the ability to check my email from my phone or get the news I desired. It is such an important part of what I do everyday. I depend on it immensely; therefore it is extremely important to me.
Looking back and trying to define exactly why I used the media outlets I did proved far more difficult that I previously imagined. Sure, some are easy to define. For example, I watched TV when I had nothing else to do. I was bored or engaged in another activity and turned on the television to try and find some sort of entertainment. The same thing could generally be said for my use of the radio and in watching movies. However the use of the Internet and reading of books is complicated. Though one could argue that books are a source of entertainment, I read them for basically two reasons. One was to expand myself and my knowledge in a personal, spiritual realm. The other reason had to do with research of subjects that I was and am interested in.
I would say that the expectations I had about the media outlets I engaged in met my expectations. The real question is how. I found that these media sources are so much apart of my everyday life that I didn’t necessarily have an exact expectation. I expected them to fill a void, but what that void actually was…I don’t know. This realization is extremely disconcerting to me. My previous assumption that I had defeated a dependency on media proved to be false. Completely false.
Since documenting my consumption last week, I have tried to find a definition for the void I tried to fill and I have failed in my attempt. This week I have questioned every action I have made. Why am I doing this? Does this fill a particular need? Or am I participating in this activity just because there is nothing else to do?
What has the media done to us? What has it done to me? Am I truly just an impulsive result of on-demand America?
I don’t know.
I honestly don’t know.
Maybe I’ll Google it…
I honestly don’t know.
Maybe I’ll Google it…
