I have active social media profiles on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and GroupMe. I explore news through these websites as well as the websites of major news providers, such as CNN or Huffington Post. I do not use social media as much as I observe many of my peers using it, which is likely caused by the fact that I do not have a data plan on my cell phone.
The mobile device that I use to access the internet is an iPod touch. I do not own a smartphone. Since I am using an iPod touch, I must have a stable Wi-Fi connection in order to access anything online. As a result, I mainly use social media while at home or while at College of DuPage. I only attend classes at College of DuPage twice a week, so the vast majority of my internet use happens at home. I do occasionally check social media if I am in a public place that offers Wi-Fi, such as a library or a food establishment.
Due to my somewhat limited connection to the internet, I predominately use social media in the morning after I wake up and just before I go to bed. Those are the times when I am home, as I live a very busy life and most days I spend 10 hours or more away from my home. I do occasionally check my social media immediately after arriving home from work. The only reason that I do this is if I get notifications appearing upon my arrival to my home. This can sometimes be overwhelming, because my iPod is now connected to the internet again and is being flooded with everything that I missed while I was at work without a connection.
Most days, checking my messages online is a part of my morning routine. I use Facebook Messenger to communicate with my friends who are in different countries. There are a few of individuals who I am in regular contact with who live in vastly different time zones. As a result, they often read my messages and reply while I am sleeping, because it is day time where they are located. I typically wake up expecting at least one new message from a friend living internationally. I occasionally use Facebook Messenger to contact individuals living in the United States, though not as often. I am more likely to text my locally located friends, the exception being if I do not know their phone number.
I typically visit Facebook at least once a day. I will open the app on my iPod if I have notifications or if I want to post something. On average, I post on my Facebook page one to three times a week. This may vary slightly if I am having a particularly boring or particularly interesting week, but has remained pretty consistent the past few years. I mainly post statuses or pictures. The majority of the pictures that I share are from my Instagram account, since I have it linked to my Facebook. I do occasionally share news stories that I believe are relevant, important, or of interest to the individuals on my Facebook friends list. Very seldom do I re-post or share items from other Facebook pages. On average, I am tagged in two or three posts per week. These can range from memes or shared content to status updates or photos with friends. One feature that I really enjoy on Facebook is event pages. This helps to keep me up to date on neat things happening in my area.
I am passively exposed to news through Facebook on a daily basis. I have many Facebook friends who share articles or videos regularly. If I am interested, I might dedicate some time to viewing the story. Before I click on any links posted on Facebook, I look at the URL. This is because I do not want to click on an unreliable source. Very often these take a long time to load, and are filled with irritating pop-ups and potentially contain viruses. In addition to all of those numerous issues, I do not want to read something that is coming from an unreliable source. If I see a headline that catches my attention but I do not recognize the URL, I will typically Google search the topic or key words. This way I can find a more reliable website that hopefully has an accurate story.
Another way that I discover news on Facebook is from friends posting statuses. Even if they do not provide an actual link, they might mention something news worthy. It was friends posting opinions on the NFL National Anthem controversy that cause me to do more research. I first learned about the mass shooting in Las Vegas through a Facebook status. A lot of my exposure to natural disasters also began with social media. I have quite a few friends in Mexico that were providing live updates on the destruction just a couple of weeks ago.
I really only use Instagram when I am actively posting on it. This means I access the app at totally random times, whenever I feel inspired to upload a picture. On average, I post to Instagram once a week. I have my Instagram account linked to my Facebook, so more often than not my posts from Instagram are also shared on Facebook. Once I have Instagram open, I will scroll through my news feed and view posts from my friends. If there is a hashtag that I think is interesting or important, I will look it up. This is one way that I receive some of my news. Also, I follow The Onion, National Geographic, and People of New York, just to name a few. Though none of these are traditional news websites, I do find out about news through their Instagram pages. These posts provide me with minimal, surface level information on national or global events. If I am intrigued, I will pursue more knowledge by Google searching the topic that I discovered on Instagram. I have used my Instagram to share small bits of news that relate to me directly. For example, if I attend a political event, protest, or other large public gathering, I might post a picture and include some “hashtag activism.” This allows me to share original footage along with my opinion. I acknowledge in doing this that I tend to have a very biased opinion.
I open my Snapchat app only when I am sending or receiving pictures. I access Snapchat usually two or three times a day. I use it predominately as a social feature but do occasionally encounter news passively. This happens when a friend sends me “news” or there is a local Snap Story that I view. I absolutely despise the Discover feature on Snapchat. I do not follow any pages on Discover but I am still able to access it. The reason that I do not like it is because I consider the majority of what Snapchat has as lead stories on Discover to be irrelevant and trashy. More often than not, the top stories displayed are coverage on the Kardashian’s most recent lip surgery or some other worthless celebrity gossip that I am not interested in. Also included on Discover are a lot of lists marketed to teenagers such as, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Kissing.” I personally think celebrity stories and those click bait lists are some of the absolute worst things to infect journalism. I never use Snapchat for news because I typically have to pass over half a dozen useless stories like I just described before I find a single news publication that interests me. In addition, the news stories on Discover are very seldom comprehensive. This is unfortunate because I believe there is a great deal of potential in the idea of Discover feature, it is just executed poorly.
I access GroupMe a couple of times a week. I use this application purely for socialization and only check it when I receive notifications.
On my laptop, my internet browser’s homepage is CNN.com. I only use my laptop in the evenings and weekends when I am at home. Every time that I log onto the Internet though, I am exposed to news stories. Quite often, I click on the headlines on CNN’s website to read more. In this way, I am absorbing little bit of news every day.
I have an email address with Yahoo. The Yahoo website also displays news stories. I interact with these publications in the same way that I interact with CNN.
I receive the majority of my news from the internet, though I do occasionally read the newspaper or listen to NPR. I use social media as much as I expected. I try to be conscious of how much time that I spend on it and I will limit myself if it is becoming too time consuming. Observing this week has made me more aware of my online habits.
