Amanda Lyons
I definitely noticed that I use Instagram and iMessage the most out of all the forms of media. I used Instagram for roughly two and a half hours over the two days. I do not use my phone all day at work and when I do go on instagram, it’s only for five minute periods. I will open it, look through some posts and exit out of it after only a few minutes. I do however use iMessage quite often. I am texting people all throughout the day, unless I am working. Over the two day period I roughly used iMessage for four hours.
I found that I use email and snapchat the least but still use somewhat. I never check my email unless it’s for school. I had to check it once on Thursday for a few minutes and that was about it. As for snapchat, I open it a few times throughout the day but I never open or answer any of my friends. I would say I used snapchat for an hour in total from the forty-eight hour period.
I spend hours communicating with people all day. iMessage is the most used, I am constantly texting my friends family and boyfriend. I don’t do phone calls as much, but I do call people a few times a day or FaceTime. My sister and I FaceTimed for 21 minutes on Saturday.
I tend to leave the TV on in the background for hours while I do laundry or homework. I do watch it for a couple of hours before I go to bed almost every night. On Friday, I left the TV on playing House Hunters for about 4 hours while I worked on homework and cleaned up my apartment. Then again on Friday night I watched Cutthroat Kitchen for three and a half hours before bed.
It surprised me that I do not use media as much as I thought I did. My phone and my TV are my most used media sources. I was also surprised that when I am on my phone, I waste a lot of time scrolling through apps because I don’t notice how much time is actually passing.
I don’t think I will change anything about the way I use media based on this exercise. If anything I will try to use social media apps on my phone less frequently.
I will maintain the current amount of time I spend on media because I don’t think I use it too much. When I am at work for nine hours I cannot check my phone at all. Other than that I need to communicate with many people throughout the day, and I don’t think leaving my TV on counts as “watching TV”.
I would say that the thinker Marshall McLuhan best fits this assignment. He wrote a lot about the effect that the message from different types of media has and how it is perceived by an audience.
A connection I made from our last class discussion was when we discussed different types of media and what they amplify, reverse or flip, retrieve and obsolesce. Specifically Facebook, but when I connected it I used instagram and thought of the ways it has amplified unrealistic expectations for our lives and retrieved old memories all at the same time.
From completing this assignment, I have learned that I do not use my phone as much as I thought I did. I definitely noticed that ever since I started working I haven’t felt the need to check my phone every two minutes. This assignment can definitely be an eye opener to people who are addicted to their phone and being on it all hours of the day.
Media Log-
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pIfITcPPUGkoHUPqTt4EmMCHnDKW20RoeRE45u9q9B4/edit#gid=0
Amanda Lyons 