Media Diet

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
TV	45 minutes	2 hours	1 hour	1.5 hours	2 hours
Internet	1 hour	40 minutes	50 minutes	30 minutes	15 minutes
Books	3-4 hours	1 hour	3 hours	2 hours	2.5 hours

            My media diet seems to be pretty balanced, but it was really hard to track the exact amount of time I spent using each different media. For example, I am rarely on the Internet for long periods of time, but use it to check email, Facebook, and other sites periodically throughout the day. Other than Facebook and emails, I use the Internet to youtube music, look at fashion blogs, and look up information on random things.  I also use it for school to research for papers to fulfill class assignments, etc. While my TV watching doesn’t seem out of control, I would like to watch less of it, and I am trying to cut down the amount of time that I waste watching TV. There are a few shows that I enjoy, including Dexter and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, that does not make up my whole TV consumption, and I feel that I end up watching mindless things, and my time could be better spent. In fact I would rather not watch any TV but somehow I always end up watching some each day. My reading hours are pretty high because of the classes I am taking this quarter. I have a lot of reading assigned for each of my classes, and I am also a slow reader, so this does take up more time than it may for a typical student. Generally these readings are school textbooks or articles assigned to me. I do try to read a chapter a night of a different non-school related book, but this is a goal that I have a hard time doing.

            On a whole, I would say that my consumption is pretty typical of a student. I know that most of my friends use these three forms of media most.  I think that one thing that may be different is I don’t have internet on my phone, and generally just use it to check sites periodically, so maybe my internet use is lower than average. From reading some previous blog postings, I may have a bit higher TV watching than some. But generally, I think my media diet says that I am an average student. The student population of Santa Clara can access all three forms of media, and are able to access all three at any time. Thus, I would think that their consumption rates are similar. However, I don’t really feel satisfied by my media diet. I really would like to cut back on the amount of hours of TV I watch, and add more valuable other forms (reading the news, reading books away from the classroom, etc).  I think American in general have become a little too involved with Internet and TV use. Especially TV, where it is such a passive activity, it is kind of concerning to me. It is so easy to sit in front of the TV and waste hours upon hours watching shows that don’t even provide us with any pleasure or knowledge. It reminds me of the movie Wall-E where the people have turned into blobs that just sit in front of screens consuming media constantly. 

Wall-E Video clip (about 1 minute in)