Media Analysis
I knew before starting a media diary, that media was involved in almost every aspect of my day. That from almost sun up to sun down, I am using some sort of media, whether for entertainment, work, news, or planning, it is like my sidekick throughout the day. However, I was actually pleasantly surprised that my media use, wasn't as prominent as I thought it would have been before keeping a diary of my use. Instead media use was more in the background rather than the foreground of my day.
I chose to start my media diary on a Friday, thinking that, looking for distraction from the busy week and the weekend looming only hours away, that I would turn more to media to distract myself from the day. I sleep with my Iphone on the charger next to my bed, and it's not unusual for me to play around on it for a minute or two while laying in bed cuddling with my three year old. Today was no exception, I disappointingly looked at the weather from the comfort of my warm bed. After getting up, as I waited for my kid's oatmeal to cook, I checked my email on my phone, hoping for some news of a lotto win or school cancellation, no such luck. While my boys ate breakfast I settled in on my corner of the couch with my cup or coffee and browsed through Facebook, Newsminer.com, and Msn.com, catching up on the highlights of the morning. Then it was time to head out for a day of class. In the car I listened to a combination of radio and Fisher Price's Greatest hits while dropping off the boys and heading to class. Then while waiting for class to start, I checked Blackboard on my iphone and sent a couple text messages. My high media use for the day came after class, while the kids were napping. I spent about an hour and a half editing photo sessions and uploading client galleries to my hosting site. After this, the rest of the day was just a minute or two here and there, checking facebook, email, weather, all on the iphone. And then turning in for the night.
Saturday wasn't much different. It started off with my usual situation, laying in bed, my phone screen lighting up the room while my husband slept soundly next to me, hoping that I might be able to go back to sleep for a few minutes, but instead checking Facebook- no luck, I got up. After getting up I used my phone to check open swim schedules for the day so that my husband could take the boys swimming while I had a session. Then I checked the weather, lousy again, and hopped on the computer for my morning internet fix, 20 minutes or so. A few hours later, when driving to my session, I used my GPS to find a client's house, and was listening to the radio on the way there. During my session I used a white noise app on my iphone to keep a newborn baby happily asleep, and also used my phone to send the client an invoice. I then listened to the radio again on the way home and spent a bit more time on the computer editing once I had arrived home. After that, my only other media use for the day was a quick phone Facebook check, and some itunes on in the evening.
Overall, I thought that my media use would be higher on the weekend, but I think because I have the whole family around, and have more going on, that I have less time to just kill time with different forms of media. This did make me see that although I don't feel dependant on media, that it is a large part of my everyday life and routine, and is a modern convenience and luxury that I very much enjoy.
