Reflections On A Weeklong Media Diary

Summary:
While this class approaches media consumption with an open mind, I hold personal opinions about what kind of media I should and should not be consuming in order to achieve my goals. Embarking on the Media Diary for a week allowed me to compare my perceptions of and aspirations for my media consumption with reality. I learned that my gmail consumption far exceeded the time I spent on social media, entertainment, news, and other categories. A focus on effective time management must therefore mean a focus on my gmail use.air max sale

My perceptions:

  • I spend too much time on social media sites like Facebook and Linkedin.

  • I spend too much time on entertainment sites.

  • I don’t spend enough time focusing on my priorities (“urgent” v. “important”).

My aspirations:

  • Improve my time management skills to focus more of my media time on my top priority projects.

  • Spend less time on media I consider “distracting” like social networks.

Media Diary Goal:

  • Understand my media consumption by type and value added, particularly time spent on social media and entertainment sites.

Methodology:

1. Quantitative data: Use RescueTime to analyze browser use.

2: Qualitative data: Based on quantitative results, reflect on value added and how that value correlates with my time management goals.

Results:

  • Quantitative data: the RescueTime data showed me that I spend 50% of my online time on gmail communication, another 25% on composition (primarily schoolwork), only 7% on social media, and 18% spread across other categories.Screen Shot 2014-02-11 at 10.10.43 PM

  • Qualitative data: Looking at the RescueTime data shows me that if I am to increase my allocation to meaningful media consumption, it should be more effective management of my gmail use. This data was not parsed apart into “productive” and “unproductive” gmail time, so this is a next step for me moving forward.

  • Neither entertainment nor news media were significant components of my time over the last week original new balance
    .

Discussion:

Maintaining this media diary was illuminating for me because my preconceived notion was that the time I am spending on social media and entertainment is preventing me from being productive. In fact, since half my media time is spent on gmail, I need to make sure that I am achieving my time management goals within my gmail use. A next step for me is building more effective email habits, such as the “4 Ds” strategy of Do, Delete, Delegate, or Defer. Correlating my gmail use with my time management goals will move me in the right direction towards understanding the value add of the majority of the time I spend on media cheap air jordan.