Media Consumption Log Assignment

Time of Day /Type of Media /Time Spent /Affect on me

6:00 am TV 1 hour Start to my day

7:00 am Ipod 30 minutes Brings out my mood for the morning

8:00 FLC posters About a minute Just advertisements for the school
Biology textbook 1.5 hours Boring but important for my education

9:00 am Cell phone 5 minutes Text to catch up on gossip during class break
FLC posters About a minute Just walking to class, doesn’t really affect me

10:00 am Women’s Literature textbook 1.25 hours Makes me think about authors, also my writing goals
Cell phone 5 minutes Call friends to meet up for lunch

11:00 am Food label 30 minutes Advertising for brand, makes me hungry
Drink label 30 minutes Quenches my thirst

12:00 pm Internet 1 hour Aides my homework, exposes me to the real world
Cell phone 1 minute Texting is a necessity to me
Drink label 15 minutes Advertising for Starbucks, my weakness
Ipod 10 minutes A pass time in my car

1:00 pm Novel 30 minutes Just mandatory reading for class

2:00 pm American Literature Textbook 1.25 hours Bores me but opens my eyes to our nation’s history

3:00 pm Movie 20 minutes Watched in class, not too important
Cell phone 1 minute Just checking in between classes
FLC posters 1 minutes Again, just passing by

4:00 pm Internet 1 hour You Tube videos for class, conjures up questions
Drink label 1 minute Green Tea label
Cell Phone 1 minute Text a friend
Ipod 5 minutes Riding in the car, readies me for workout
Clothing brand 2 minutes Nike shoes, brings back soccer memories

5:00 pm Novel 1 hour Read during workout, class work
Ipod 1 hour Listen to music while working out, motivates me
Television 1 hour Watch every so often during workout, distraction

6:00 pm Cell phone 5 minutes Check messages
Ipod 20 minutes Listen driving home, passes the time

7:00 pm Television 2 hours Used to wind me down, an escape from reality

8:00 pm Text books 3 hours Homework for the night, bores me

9:00 pm Cell Phone 15 minutes Talk to dad, catch up

10:00 pm Television 3 hours Background noise to homework and getting ready for bed

*Times are an estimate and more than one type of medium were used at the same time; in other words overlapping was constant.*
*Hours of the day are also not exact but are as close as they could have been.*

This media consumption log was a very, very eye opening experience for me, personally. After writing everything down on paper and looking over all the types of media, how much was consumed, and the total amount of time media exposure occurs to me on a usual day, I was appalled. I’m sure this is rather normal for a college student similar to myself, but still, I can’t believe how affective media is on our world’s daily lives. Television seem to be my main source of media exposure, but that can be explained by my off-campus living life and seclusion from other student’s due to my distance gap from town. It’s not like all I do is watch TV, but whenever I’m home, doing homework, cleaning, etc. my television is on just simple for the company of a familiar noise. Nothing too terrible, but I was again, very surprised by the results.
Looking back on my chart of my personal media consumption, it’s weird to think that these mediums are, for the most part, the only subjects in which I receive and analyze my culture. Using any of these mediums is not the best way to locate and learn about my community and the world news around me. In saying this, you can conclude that I do not get enough of my cultural knowledge at all. I’m not complaining when I say this but if you were to assume I am a “typical” college student, what does that say to the cultural intelligence of every college student across the US? Not a whole lot, that’s for sure. This just goes to show you that our generation has other priorities in our lives and get what we call “news” from other, younger sources. You could also say that we particularly don’t care about our culture today and would rather steal tracks off of lime wire on the internet. I’m sorry, that’s harsh, but it’s so true.
On another hand, I did enjoy doing this assignment immensely. I found myself looking harder into the consumption of daily media and over analyzing every aspect of it. This, normally, was never the case before this log. Before this I would have never looked this hard into what I watch, listen, or see and how much, when, and where I utilize it all. In addition to that with the same frame of mind, it was kind of funny to do this project because instead of just absorbing the media itself, I started focusing on the type of media I was influenced by and the source it came from. Never would I have guessed at how deep one can truly look into the foundation of their daily knowledge and intelligence. I can honestly say that this media consumption log journal has changed my perspective on media today!