I had a very unusual week due to a few one-off obligations, so my results are rather skewed. I am planning on doing this exercise again in the coming week, with cool graphics. However, initial insights include:

• I spent very little total time on Facebook (30 min for the week) but I checked it many times a day, leading to many interruptions.
• All the serious news articles I consumed online came through email newsletters or Facebook. I also read some news in newspaper form.
• I spent more time reading about World Cup cross-country skiing results than “serious” news, despite the fact that I had to seek out those stories myself rather than seeing them on Facebook or in my email. (It was an outstanding weekend for the US ladies. Still, this is embarrassing.)
• I am really surprised how much time I spend texting. I could have read the Wall Street Journal A section all the way through about three times for the amount of time I spent texting – not to mention all the interruptions that make it take longer to do other things, or prevent you from finishing them.

My breakdown by media category, with the type I consumed most of first and least last: movies, videos, email, news, making media, texting, Facebook, iCal, shopping, weather

Lastly, while the rest of the week was kind of a bust, I had a very interesting experience today that taught me more about how to get people to read even when they think they’re too busy for the news (myself included). In Jerusalem, I always got frustrated that I would post a picture of a stray cat or Palestinian kids playing in the snow and get dozens of likes, but when I posted a story I’d worked on for weeks, only a few people ‘liked’ it.

Today I came across a story on Facebook that some friends (not close friends) had shared and despite my weird week, I was impelled to click on it. It was called, “Having it all kinda sucks.” I found it so compelling that I read all the way through, shared it on my FB page, and tagged a few women friends who are mothers and asked what they thought. That led to the best FB conversation I’ve ever had on my page. It gave me hope for engaging my FB friends on important topics.

Looking forward to doing this again with a more representative week.