Below is a detailed log of my media use on Thursday August 28th. Click the arrow to see a detailed summary of my usage.
7:30am: Checked my all of my email inboxes and Instagram feed
I woke up early to get a head start on my work for the day. Every morning I check my inbox to see if there are important emails I either missed the night before or in the early morning when I was sleeping. A lot of the media organizations such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and ESPN, send me emails with the day’s headlines. I would say a lot of the news I take in, comes from my email. I also check my Instagram feed to see if there was any news or events that happened throughout the night. I do use the platform as a part of my news source, while also using it as a personal form of communication. For example, when scrolling through my feed I saw a striking image of the National Mall posted by the White House showing that it was the 61st anniversary of the March on Washington, a huge civil rights event in our nation’s history.
8:15am: Listened to my “Rage Mix” on Spotify during my workout
During my workouts every weekday morning, I like to listen to music that will get me “angry”, such as heavy metal, 90s Punk, and more. I would say that this specific Spotify mix gets me in the mood to lift weights with energy and be able to get my reps in effectively.
9:45am: Watched Friends and scrolled through Instagram during breakfast
After getting ready for the day, I sat down to eat my breakfast. While I was eating breakfast, I decided that I was going to watch some TV and scroll through Instagram again just purely for entertainment and to relax before carrying on with my daily to-do list. I would say that Friends is my favorite show to watch and it is on every day of the week on TBS, which is amazing! As I was scrolling on Instagram, I came across a suggested post that really caught my attention. It was a motivational post about getting through the silent battles we all face every single day. As someone who has faced these tough battles recently, it was nice to see this to start my day.
10:00am: Checked the weather
As I finished my breakfast, I wanted to check what the weather was outside before I left to go grocery shopping for the second half of the week to see if it was going to rain or not.
12:45pm: Open Canvas and started my homework
Finishing all of my morning routines and errands, it was time to get started on my homework for the day. Fortunately, I have all iCourses this semester and am able to get my homework done on my own time and at my own pace.
2:45pm: Watched the Creator Classic PGA Tour event
After a couple hours of non-stop grinding on homework, I needed to take a break and shut off my brain for a little bit of time. Luckily, the new one day PGA Tour event that features golf creators from around the country was on, so I decided to watch that as my break. Watching golf has always been something that has relaxed me and let my brain kind of re-calibrate, so I was glad this was streaming.
3:15pm: Checked my email again
As I was nearing the end of my break time, I checked my email again since it was the middle of my day. I like to check my email a couple times a day to see if there is anything urgent or important that I need to see or respond to. Most of the time, I am just looking at more emails from the media sources I first mentioned at the beginning of this post. One piece of news that stuck out to me was the Supreme Court blocking even more student loan debt.
4:45pm: Listened to my Spotify “Daylist” while cooking dinner
Spotify has this new initiative called the “Daylist” and it’s their curated playlist that updates every 3 hours based on what you listen to regularly during that specific hour time period. When I am cooking, I love to listen to music to get the good vibes rolling. Cooking is one of my favorite things to do and being able to get into a good rhythm while going through the steps of a recipe helps me cook at a nice pace and enjoy it more.
8:30pm: FaceTimed a Friend
When I got back to my apartment from a long fraternity event, I was happy to receive a call from one of my good friends who graduated last semester. It was awesome catching up with him as we both had pretty busy summers and weren’t able to talk as much as we used to.
9:00pm: Winding down with YouTube
After getting off the phone with my friend, I decided it was time for me to wind down and get ready for bed. I know this may not be the best winding down routine, but every night I watch YouTube for 30 minutes to relax and get my brain ready for sleep. Since I wanted to relax, I decided to watch a part of a video by my favorite golf creators on the platform Good Good Golf.
Although this particular Thursday wasn’t the most active for the media sources, I would say that I use Instagram as one of my main and most credible sources of information and news. Now, do I think that all the information that I see on the platform is correct all the time? No. Do I think that I am able to get a lot of credible and important information from news organizations on the platform? Yes. The post about how it has been 61 years since the March on Washington is a perfect example of this. I believe that Instagram makes it easier for me to take in a lot of information at one time and stay updated on world events. It also allows me to share it and be apart of the expansion of knowledge.
To be completely honest, I would say that my media usage should probably be contained a little bit. I seem to rely on my media sources, and spend a lot of time looking at screens and not enough time doing other things with friends. This log has helped me understand how I utilize media in my everyday life and how I can maybe better regulate my usage from now on.
Tyler's Media Diary 
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