Hey Media, here’s where you can find me.
During the 24-hour period that I charted my news media use, I realized that I do not look at as much news as I expected. I look at the most news media on my phone because of all the notifications that I have set up through the Apple News app. Even with those, I get so many at once that I will usually delete more than half of them. The amount that pop up throughout each day actually start to get annoying.
The device I love the most but use the least when it comes to news media is TV. I try to watch the news on TV at least once a day. The problem is that this way of getting news is a lot more restricted because when I am at school, I cannot just turn on a TV and see the latest information on the big news stories of the day. Even though most things are able to be streamed online, it usually takes more time to sit and watch. In this sense, having the ability to get quick updates on my phone is an amazing thing.
The third device I use to get news media is my computer. Every time I am doing homework or using the internet it opens me up to advertisements, and other stories that pop up in random places, that are meant to draw me in. These are things that are tailored specifically to me and the news I have been known to click on, which is pretty scary. This is the main way that I receive news media through this device. The only time I may look up a specific story is if it is related to entertainment. Otherwise, I do not actively search for news unless it shows up in my feed, Yahoo webpage, or an internet browser loading page.
I pay for a lot of entertainment media such as Netflix and Hulu. However, I would never pay for news media subscriptions because I feel like my knowledge of what is going on in the world should not be limited to how much money I am willing to spend. With entertainment, it makes sense because each platform has a different focus and content that is only found on that streaming service. With news, it is so easy to find the same information somewhere else for free, so the subscription just feels like an extra cost. Although, I never pay for apps, or in-app purchases, which can also be considered entertainment.
Using the Moment app, I found out that I use my phone an average of 3 hours and 4 minutes per day. This is less than what I expected because I feel like I am constantly looking things up on my phone or checking for notifications whenever I am bored. However, the Moment app says that I touch my phone every 29 minutes. This means that I am checking my phone pretty often but not actually doing anything on it. The app also says that the average user uses their phone for 3 hours and 57 minutes per day. This means that I am below average by a small percentage. It also said that I spend 22% of my waking life on my phone and at this rate that will be equal to 8.1 years. I never realized how much the time spent on our devices adds up until I saw this statistic.
During this assignment, I also realized that I never take any action with any of the news articles that I see or read throughout the day. This is something that I need to get better at, because I think it is important to share things that may spark interest for others. It is also important to spread news media that is well reported and factually correct. With all the allegations of “fake news” these days, it is even more crucial that good stories get out there and are read.
