My Media Diet

I recorded my media diet from 10/19-10/25, and the results were both revealing and common:

10/19
5 hours of TV; mostly comedy and a couple movies, also comedy
2 hours of reading; all for school but Arabic fiction, Philosophy and an article for this class
Less than 1 hour on the internet; mostly for school but checked email too
10/20
4 hours of TV; a couple action movies, one comedy show
2 hours of reading; all for school (Philosophy)
2 hours of internet; doing homework, email and just messing around
10/21
3 hours of TV; all comedy shows
Less than 1 hour of reading; all for school (Arabic fiction and history)
Less than 1 hour of internet; just messing around and checking email
10/22
3 hours of TV; all Arabic film (documentary and fiction)
No reading
Less than 1 hour of internet; checking email, responding to blog and camino posts
10/23
Less than 1 hour of TV
No Reading
No Internet
10/24
3 hours of TV; some comedy some drama shows
4 hours of reading; all for school (Philosophy, articles for this class and Arabic history)
Less than 1 hour internet; checking email
10/25
4 hours of TV; all comedy shows
2 hours of reading; all for school
Less than 1 hour internet; email and messing around

Most of the shows I watched weekly were and are comedy shows like South Park, The Office, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Community. Other than those and a few other random shows, I watched movies which were also mostly comedy. This is saying something about not only my favorite genre of media, but America's in a way; Most of the TV shows that are on at the "prime time" are divided between drama and comedy. This became apparent to me after going through this whole process. Even action and mystery shows now are mostly drama. 

It is also interesting to see my reading schedule. The more I have to read for school the less I read for my own benefit, though reading itself is always good. I also found that I have set times when I do read, either in the middle of the day or later at night. I do wish I could change my reading habits though; if I could read all the books I wanted while going to school it might help school and myself. Now it is simply a matter of time.

What I am the most surprised with is my internet and computer usage. Over the summer I used to use my computer so much more, but now I seem to only use it for checking email (multiple times a day some days), messing around news sites and doing homework. Given our talks and articles about the digital divide, this highlights how those who have the ability to be on the internet or on a computer use them less than those who don't have computers or the internet. I do wish I used my computer more, but honestly internet phones seem to be taking center stage.