I never thought the way we consume media or use our devices would fully reveal our individuality. Of course, we control what we do and see. But even things like our mood, life state, and niche interests can all be seen by just looking at what we consume, how we consume it, and when.
Tracking
To learn about myself and my online presence, I tracked my media usage across all of my devices for one weekend (Oct 3rd – 5th). On weekends I do not tend to use my computer at all, as it is purely for professional or academic usage. So, for this project it will be excluded. I tend to follow a constant day routine with very little changes. So, I assumed I knew somewhat how my data would look like. In order to make sure my data was as accurate as possible, I logged or took note of what app I was going into and why. I also noted the time, format, tone, and engagement of each data point.
Results
Viewing my data all together at the end of the weekend, there was one obvious and dominating result, I live on entertainment. It was my most used category, taking control of most of my day. But I am also not very loyal to any entertainment platform. I constantly switched between a few different ones depending on what I was looking for.
In car rides, Spotify would be my immediate go to. I required musical company even if it would just be a 20-minute drive. The type of music I would play also depended on the time and where I was driving to. At 7:00 AM, as I did my routine drop-of, I played a “Chill music” playlist curated for me by Spotify. But at 10: 00 AM the next day, I played my Spotify DJ since I was going to be using the GPS for most of the time.
I also spent most of my Friday obsessing over a recently released game. Silent Hill F: 11:00 AM, 10:00 PM, 12:00 AM. Taking hours each time I would seek anything Silent Hill F based. I would like to clarify though that I was not playing the game itself. Instead, I was watching gameplays, story guides, and reading community thoughts.
What then?
As I had mentioned above, in a way you can still see some routine things in my data. Before I drive, I play music; I only use the same apps, and my day hours seem to correlate. But one of my major conclusions and something I was unaware of, is my tendency to follow a story. My obsession with Silent Hill F was based on the fact that I had found a long, captivating story. Finding stories, I really like or that are especially unique is something I struggle with. So, whenever I do find a good story, I obsess over it and completely hyper fixate on it. This can also be seen with my constant need for music. Music is so broad it can also be considered a story. Whether it be the lyrics itself, or the arrangement, it fulfills the story seeking gap in my brain. When eating out with friends we, much like other people, first take a picture of our food before eating. But each one of us takes the picture differently, focusing on different elements or liking a certain level of exposure. We are creating a story with our picture, representative of us and the outing.
Is this good?
Although looking for a story everywhere and anywhere isn’t necessarily bad. It has caused some bad habits with my media consumption. Sometimes these hyper fixations lock me out from the world, and I spend too much time on them. This leads to a high screentime and affects my procrastination and sleep. Since I am very 0 to 100 when it comes to media consumption, I need to find a balance. In the case I find a good story, following time segments could help me break free from a hyper fixation or rabbit hole. I have also thought to change up some of the platforms I use. Currently I have found a new liking to Pinterest, and it has given me a new hobby of uploading my own pictures.
Collaboration
On this same topic of media consumption, I worked with a few other people in order to compare our results.
Based on our collaborative assignment and my own analysis, I created this artifact. I used a dark, glowing red along with basic colors in order to give the feel of being trapped in our devices late into the night. I wanted to make it a bit menacing, almost like a sticker you would find in a weird location in a subway. The text boxes are constantly popping up, representing our stimulation desire and whether we feel satisfied. I also included a statistical fact on how long we may spend going down rabbit holes.