Tracking and Analyzing My Daily Media Consumption

I decided to track the media that I would consume from 10:00 am on April 21 to 10:00 am on April 22. I estimated that I would consume 8 hours of media— which I thought was high, but I was surprised to find that I actually consumed 9 and a half hours of media. Most of the 9 and a half hours were spent on my phone: 7 hours were spent reading eBooks, 30 minutes were spent on a workout app, 30 minutes were spent messaging people, 20 minutes were spent on Reddit, and 10 minutes were spent on Safari. I also used my laptop to do schoolwork for about 30 minutes, and “watched” Netflix while reading for about 3 hours. I don’t think my math adds up here, but it’s just an estimate.

I tend to multitask during certain activities. While watching Netflix I was reading, but it was less “multitasking” and more “reading with background noise and occasionally getting distracted.” I also will sometimes multitask when I’m doing my schoolwork, but I try not to.

I tend to consume media throughout the day, I don’t “binge” it at a specific time. However, I think this is unusual for me. When I had to physically go to school and had other commitments, I would definitely “binge” when I had spare time.

Looking at the time spent consuming media, I spent about 8 hours consuming mainstream media and about 1 hour consuming user created media. This doesn’t surprise me at all. I probably used to consume a lot more user created media, but I’ve been trying to spend less time on social media platforms, and instead use my time more productively.

I try to have time each day where I “unplug” and spend time away from technology, but I think that it’s getting very hard for me. Many of the things I do in my free time now use some form of technology. For instance, I could read a real book, but the eBooks I read are much cheaper, I also use an app that has workout routines on it, I generally like listening to music or a podcast while I walk, and now even school requires using a lot more technology.

I find that my willingness to “unplug” depends a lot on how I’m spending my time online. If I’m scrolling through social media because I’m bored, it isn’t hard to convince me to do something else. I’d probably get bored and start doing something else on my own. But if the reason I’m spending so much time “plugged in” is because I just downloaded a new book and it’s really good, then I’m much more likely to spend way too much time on my phone. This definitely can affect my productivity throughout the day, especially when it comes to things that I have a hard time motivating myself to do otherwise, like schoolwork.