Media Consumption habits first thoughts

Okay, before writing this first post I need to be honest. My final results are far from accurate. For me, it was really difficult to keep track of my media consumption habits. Why? Because I tend to check my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts (almost unconsciously) way too many times. I’m on and off my phone all day long, constantly bouncing around various media platforms.

Perhaps, I should have tried doing it with one of those apps that track the daily iPhone screen time, since one of the things I know for sure, is that my main source is my phone. How could it not be? Everything I “need” is just a finger tap away.

I’m pretty sure this is the way most millennials consume media today. We are on our mobile phones and most specifically, on our social media accounts. But why is this? Well, for no one is a secret that we are over saturated with content. I think, in many ways, these platforms have become a tool to curate content. We might not be completely aware of this, but I think these platforms are not just a source to connect us with family, friends, colleagues or acquaintances. I think we are accessing these platforms seeking for content that, we will most likely, would want to watch or read. Watch being #1. Video is always a winner when it comes to content.

That’s why Twitter became so popular in the first place. It was a tool you could use to select the few sources you wanted to get content from, get a little snippet of the content and then decide if you wanted to dig deeper. More often than not, those 140 characters accompanied with an image or video, is all you need.

Or let’s look into Facebook. What do we like about Facebook? Its algorithm is very powerful. It makes them know what we want or at least, they have a pretty close idea. They make everything easier for us by putting in our feed content that is attractive to us. Attractive because it comes from people that are somewhat relatable to you. This said, we as users, act as content curators for our networks all the time. Without being aware of it (at least not the general consumer).

Same thing happens with YouTube and Instagram. We subscribe or follow certain people. Why? Because they create or share content that we like.

So, if you ask me what’s my takeaway, I would say that in this world (where everyone seems to be fighting for eyeballs and against that A.D.D behavior that seems to be in the Millennials’ DNA) we need to figure out a way to create personalized experiences for the consumer. We all need help with the curation of content, while we try to make sense of all the information available in the digital space.