Over a 48 hour period, I have found that I use Twitter the most over any other social media app on my phone. I like using Twitter because it is an easy way to find links to news articles, get short 140 character updates from friends, and a constant way of always being fed information from everything and everyone you are interested in. I spent an embarrassing amount of time on Twitter. This is because I traveled home. On the long car, and train ride, Twitter was my source of entertainment. I probably spent around five hours total on Twitter within the 48 hours I observed my social media apps. I also used Netflix before bed quite a bit. This was not surprising to me at all.
The media form I used the least of was the television. Considering my family was watching March Madness the whole weekend, and I am not it was unsurprising to me that television was my least used media platform. However, while at school, I barely watch television as well. This is because of two factors- one, being that Netflix has everything I could possibly want to watch, and two- my television only has one channel.
I spent a lot of time in contact with people over media. This is pretty normal for me because since I go to school three hours away from home, my phone is my main source of communication with family and friends. The same happens when I go home and want to contact my friends from school. This past weekend I probably spent a total of three hours messaging others over social media.
I barely used monologic media. Monologic media is one sided and includes television and radio. The only time I used the radio was when driving in my car for a short distance. And, as previously stated I barely watched television.
I was not surprised by my media use. When I go home for weekends, the amount of texting I do naturally increases. I usually browse my social media sites at night before bed. Again, I noticed I use Twitter the most. This was not surprising. However, what did surprise me was the fact that I would think I was on Twitter for 10 minutes and then all of a sudden it was close to 2am and I had been scrolling through it for a couple of hours!
This assignment has made me more aware of how lost I get in scrolling through Twitter. I think I would probably make sure from now on that I don’t end up wasting my precious sleeping hours on Twitter. Other than this, I think my social media usage was fairly normal. Media use in general does not surprise me. It is a constant in our lives and constantly feeds us new information every single time we check it.
I think the theorist we have discussed in class that best fits this assignment was Emile Durkheim. He believed that media has an influence on how people think and their opinions. This is very true because media is a very relevant part of our society today and is often extremely biased.
Digital Communications 