Today is day one of tracking my media use. I feel as though by the end of this exercise I’ll realise exactly how much I’m reaching for my phone and opening my laptop. My primary media use revolves around various social media, streaming services and entertainment. When I first wake up I’ll roll over and scroll through Istagram for entertainment purposes. I’ll watch the Instagram stories and tap through them if they don’t hold my attention. At my own discretion I will like pictures of public figures I follow. With people I know, I may like their photo because I’m familiar with them or just because they’ve posted a nice picture. However, I will never double tap a photo if I just plain don’t like it, no matter how good a friend. Next I’ll stream some music using Spotify. Generally I’ll just browse their ready made playlists to boost my mood in the morning…plus I don’t have premium which limits my options. It is my ritual that I will watch a Youtube video whilst I eat breakfast. It’s generally a make-up tutorial or product review by my favourite Youtuber- Glamlife Guru.I’ll thumbs up the video if I found it interesting or informative. After this routine, my media use is pretty much all over the shop; from me picking up my phone when I’m board, to looking up necessary things such as timetables. As today is Friday and I had to catch public transport into my tute, I used the PTV app to figure out when my bus and train were coming. If not for this app I would run later than I already do and for that reason its one of my most used apps. When I’m on public transport is probably the height of my media use. It’s a three hour round trip for me so there’s plenty of time for me to scroll through Facebook, check emails, watch snap stories and window shop online all before realising I’m using way too much data.

By the end of this week of documenting my media use, I think it will confirm just how much of a passive media consumer I am. However I could surprise myself with the way in which I am mindlessly using media.