Monthly Archives: February 2015
Wahyu’s Media Diary
This is my first time attempt to picture my media consumption pattern in a graphic. Enjoy!
My Media App Diary
Image
I got inspiration for my media diary from an online magazine called Flipboard, (https://flipboard.com/) which is a social-networking aggregation magazine-format mobile app that can be customized to your exact media specifications. I am obsessed with FlipBoard, as it compiles all of my media apps (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram…etc) and displays them in a dynamic and clean way. I can even select news outlets that I love reading and have them constantly refreshed into my feed.
I put my photoshop skills to the test to further customize this design, to make it my own media app “diary.”
This first screen shot of the app (above) has a photo of me and a brief introduction to my media diary.
The second screen shot (right) is comprised of the top three webpages I visited over the past 168 hours, which are: G-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. G-mail is always open on my iPhone and my computer, I’ve noticed how much I rely on this source for anything from communication to information. I really try not to use Facebook that much, but I am in a new course this semester that requires we have an active Facebook account. Lastly, I heavily rely on Twitter for most of my news information. Through Twitter I can stay up-to-date on worldly news while I am in school.
The third screen shot of my app diary (left) represents the technologies (or communication mediums) I used to implement/access my media. It turns out I use my phone way too much. From the first moment my iPhone alarm goes off in the morning, to the time I set my it at night, I am on my phone. But, to my defense, my phone is the way I communicate, with friends, with family, with professors, and with potential employers. My phone gives me access to instantaneous information from around the world, including news and entertainment media.
When I am not on my phone I am on my computer, taking notes for class, accessing school readings, editing my portfolio, connecting with professors/employers, and (when I get the chance) watching movies/listening to music. When I am not slave to my devices, I am verbally engaging with my friends, family, or whomever I may be conversing with.
The fourth screen shot (right) represents the top entertainment media sources I utilized this past week. When I found a chance to unwind, I watched a movie on Amazon Prime or Netflix, read silly articles on BuzzFeed, worked on Photoshop, and perused FlipBoard. However, it is important to note that I also accessed entertainment media on my phone, such as SnapChat, Instagram, Spotify, and FlipBoard.
I thought it was important to note the information that has been shared with me this past week, regarding media technologies. This is why I decided to add a screen shot (Left) of media related outlets that have been shared with me by my classmates, such as: Storify Balsamiq, StatsMokey, ReportIt App, and Timeline JS.
The results are in (Right), and the top news media outlets I used this past week (according to how often I visited them) are as follows:
Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, NBC News, Snapchat, Fox News, YouTube, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and The National Review.
All of which I visited on my iPhone and laptop.
In conclusion (Left), I spent about 58.333% of my day, or 14 hours, involved with media tech communication. The top media I used were Twitter (for news collection), G-mail (for communication and sharing), Microsoft Word (for homework/notes), and Facebook (for news/communication). I accessed this media the most via my iPhone.
Below you can find an overview of my Media App Diary.
My online media habits
I put together a little summary here of the week of February 4-11 and, globally, my last two-ish years of online media consumption. I’ve focused on the digital because that’s almost exclusively how I get my media. I do subscribe to several print magazines–WIRED, Popular Science, and MAGIC Magazine, for instance–but over the course of a given month, most to all of my media consumption is via the Internet.
My record-keeping is also somewhat incomplete: While I track my laptop Internet use extensively, my smartphone use is also considerable. It’s my primary means of checking and responding to email, as well as my main news source (via Flipboard).
Media Diary… what a diet!
Media consumption, what a mess
Before I started recording everything I thought I was a very predictable creature of habits. Two snow storms and 12 days later, this is not that clear to me anymore. There are still some evident truths: I spend a LOT of time not only staring at my computer but also typing, gesturing, scribbling, coding, reading,… on it.
- Here is what I did: I recorded all my browser activity during 12 days. I choose to do the media diary like this for several reasons:
- the computer and specifically my browser is where I spend most of my time consuming media
- I use my phone a lot to get notifications but unless I am on the go which was rare those past days, I read and interact with those on my computer
- getting consistent and reliable tracking is possible on the computer
- finally, my browser reflect best what I am doing as I do most things in there anyway (except watching movies and series which I recorded separately, and they amount for a total of 9h30 of movies and 8h40 of TV series)
That’s the why, here is how.
Found a Chrome extension that records some time stats then modified it to get more granular and accurate record to be able to see when a webpage is not only open but I am active on it (reading, scrolling, clicking, typing,…). And then took all of this data and created some nice graphs. You can find all the interactive graphs HERE if you want to play a bit more with the data.
Here is what I found interesting:
- I spend a lot of time on that thing. Keep in mind that all the numbers are time active so when I am interacting with the computer. It doesn’t count all the gaps of attention or loading times. Compared to the 18h10 spent watching movies or series, I find this almost reassuring that I spend three times as much time being active and productive on the computer).
- I spend most of my time on Facebook or coding. This might be explained by the fact that Facebook is now my primary mean of communication and also that coding is what I do for fun.
- Regarding my news consumption, I got to record what I thought originally: most of my news sources are from social media except the very few news website I visit on a daily basis. I even looked at twitter to get a general sense of news instead of drilling into full articles when the subject was not important enough. If Facebook is opened and active most of the time, many other actions are pretty random during the day, but news reading occurs strictly if there has been some intense activity on my social media walls.
- Finally, I looked at the actual active time to see how productive I was and which websites were captivating most of my attention. The colors speak for themselves, even if I check news websites, I spend more time on Facebook or on my email in those single period. My activity is a lot of multitasking and my attention is very unfocused, on the computer but also with things outside of my computer (I am at most 35% focus on any browser activity at a given time).
Thank you for taking the time to read until here and once again feel free to play with the graphs HERE.
Sophie’s Media Diet
Media– like food– has become an irreplaceable part of our daily diet. To many people, not being able to scroll through the news, to check Gmail, to check Twitter, to check Facebook for a day or two feels like a real fast. Our hunger for media often parallels our cravings for calories– the later in the night it is, the more we want salty, addictive snacks for mindless consumption.
With this in mind, I spent one week (2/4-2/11) recording what sort of media I was consuming every time I ate. The most repeated results are what I’ve used to put together the infographic above. Because I absolutely adore food and cooking, I actually spend a fair amount of my day not only digesting media and food but also media on food. Food blogs, like Serious Eats and the Kitchn, are my favorite, and I read them daily like newspapers.
The results are telling– I do, in fact, tend to eat “slower” foods with longer forms of media– such as dinner with Netflix, and a Cafe au Lait with the New York Times. Recently, I’ve been working on a project that involves scraping and parsing several media outlets — thus consuming tons of articles and stories without actually reading them. When I code, I tend to eat nothing at all, or salty, repetitive foods such as goldfish to match the rate in which I’m doing things.
It should be noted, that of course, what is shown is an incomplete picture– I tend to eat a lot more of both food and media than shown; what is chosen is curated for the overall summary.
media diary shows lots of email, not enough serendipity
Bob Young’s media diet
I depict my media diet as a breakfast because I do most of my daily consuming in the two hours after waking. I get most of my news protein, if you will, from the Boston Globe, Seattle Times and various sources via Twitter. I get what some might consider less enriching calories from video.
As for what and why, my attention is split between drug policy (my main beat), local news, arts and entertainment, and national and international news.
Gideon’s Media Diary
I”was”shoveling”another”foot”of”snow”off”my”driveway”Sunday”morning”when”a” passing”car”slowed”to”a crawl.”Suddenly,”two”objects,”flung”from”the”driver’s”side” window, arced”high”over”the”car’s”roof like”Kareem”Abdul”Jabbar”hook”shots. The”Boston”Globe”and”New”York”Times”had”arrived.”In”print. Despite”the”blizzard. I”was”so”overjoyed,”I”highHfived”Waldemar,”the”delivery”driver.” Sunday”is”the”one”day”of”the”week”that I”am”still”able”to”enjoy”the”ritual”of”reading” newspapers,”unadulterated”by”apps,”social”media,”and”other”digitalHage”johnnysH comeHlately. Keeping”a”media”diary revealed”to”me”how”much”my”media” consumption”habits”have”changed”the”rest”of”the”week.”While”I”still”rely”heavily”on” newspapers”for”my”news”those”other”mornings”– both”in”print”and”online”– I”multiH task”over”breakfast,”clicking”on”links”delivered”via”Twitter”and”daily”eHmail” newsletters,”and”tweeting”and”retweeting”stories”that”interest”me.”I”consume”more” news”during”my”commute”– NPR”and”the”BBC”over”the”car”radio,”Twitter,”Facebook, and”eHmail”while”riding”the”bus”or”T.” Perhaps”the”biggest”change,”though,”is”that”I”already”know”many”of”the”morning” headlines”the”night”before,”thanks”to”newspaper”websites,”breaking”news”alerts”on” my”phone,”and”social”media.”So”in”the”morning,”I”look”for”context”and”explanatory” stories. Times”Media”Critic”David”Carr’s”untimely”death”was”a”case”in”point: I”got”the”news”from”an alert”sent”to”my”phone”Thursday”night”by”the”Times.”I” immediately”opened”the”NYT”Now”app”to”read”the”short”item”posted”there.”During” the”evening,”I”checked”Twitter”periodically”and”followed”the”torrent”of”140H character”tributes.”Before”bed,”I”read”the”full”obit”on”the NYT”website. On”Saturday” morning,”I”read”two”Globe”stories”in”print,”an”interview”with”Carr”just”before”his” death”and”a”story”about”his”first”semester”teaching”at”BU.”Finally,”I”read”The”Media” Equation”column”in”Monday’s”Times”(again”in”print),”Carr’s”old”column,”which”also” focused”on”his”teaching. This”exercise”also”showed”me”that”I”still”get”most”of”my”information”from”words,” written”or”spoken.”The”main”exception”this”week:”maps”showing”expected”snowfall.” I”watched”only”one”video”–”of”my”nephew”and”his”cat”playing”the”piano.”” Here is a breakdown of my media consumption:
