Katie Hermsen Media Diary Essay CA 250 section 601 TA: Andrew Bottomley Media Immersion
During the summer, I work as a camp counselor and I am essentially cut off from
the majority of the media. In our woodsy bubble of canoeing and archery, we do not
have the time or the resources to use our phones or computers or to read books or the
newspaper to keep up with the “outside world”. In stark contrast, I spend my days at
college immersed in media practically 100% of my waking hours. I am constantly
listening to my diverse music collection, communicating with faraway friends via phone
and Internet, and keeping up with portals of culture, mostly on the Internet through blogs,
Facebook, and news sites. I find that the heavy media exposure almost makes me feel
like a different person than the simple and outdoorsy one I am at camp. This assignment
brought my own media habits back to my attention and made me more aware of how
dependent I am on the media for schoolwork and entertainment and how my media use
reflects my identity.
I found myself engaging in a wide variety of media throughout this project for
many different reasons. For example, in one study session at the library, I used my laptop
to access the Internet for my homework, to procrastinate on Facebook, to listen to music,
and chat with a friend in my class to help clarify an assignment. I convince myself that
bringing my laptop to the library is necessary in order to do homework, but I end up
using it for plenty of other things, which is not always a good way to get my work done.
When not attempting to focus on schoolwork, I use the media for entertainment and
communication as well. I believe this contributes to the feeling of attachment I have to
the media because it keeps me amused with episodes of Scrubs on Netflix and books
Katie Hermsen Media Diary Essay CA 250 section 601 TA: Andrew Bottomley from the Hunger Games series and it helps me maintain a close relationship with my
parents and friends from high school. My familiarity with how to navigate my choices of
media also leads me to try to multi-task.
Many things I do in the media are more
passive, which allows me to watch television with my roommates while I flip through
photos on my digital camera or answer email while I talk on the phone with my mother. I
rarely go anywhere or do any kind of homework without my iPod playing in the
background. In fact, I overlapped my media use more often than not, which is not always
a good thing since I can feel it contribute unnecessary stress to my life.
In addition, most of my media use was a solitary activity. I usually watch things
on Netflix alone on my laptop, read books, peruse the Internet, and listen to my iPod on
my way to class alone. Although my use of media is evident to those around me, I am
the only one engaging in it at the time. Fortunately, my solo media consumption does not
make me feel as though I am deprived of personal contact with people. I believe I have
plenty of interactions with my friends, roommates, and coworkers, despite my heavy
media usage.
I rarely considered my identity consciously before making the choice to use a
certain kind of media; however, the kind of media I use as well as how and when I use it
directly correlates to the kind of person I am. There was not much I was hesitant to put
on my diary, yet it was a bit embarrassing to see how many episodes of Scrubs I watched
in only a four-day period. There are plenty of things I would only watch with certain
people, such as a movie that I know will make me cry, like PS I Love You. I was
Katie Hermsen Media Diary Essay CA 250 section 601 TA: Andrew Bottomley comfortable consuming that kind of media with my roommates, but I would not want to
go to the movie theater and be vulnerable in that way in front of strangers.
My choice of music, movies, books, and television shows also directly reflects my
identity. I am the sort of person who wants to do it all, to say everything and be
everywhere and experience the whole world at once. My constant media use reflects that.
I am also highly aware of how others perceive me; the media with which this is most
evident is Facebook, twitter, and Tumblr. I only post what I want people to see and I am
always cautious about appearing to others in a way that might not be the way I intended.
While perceptions of others don’t exactly change what media I use, it does shape how I
use this media and what I choose to make public.
As of August 21st, I was living back in Madison full time after spending the
summer at camp away from many of my media habits. I was amazed at how quickly I
fell back into the routine of constantly checking my Facebook, my phone, and my email.
This media diary experience definitely brought my extensive media use back to my
attention and it became clearer to me that while at school, I need to learn to use my time
more wisely. Watching movies or scrolling through my Tumblr feed is not going to help
me get my Gender and Women’s Studies reading done. My media use could be tweaked,
but this assignment made me more aware of how the media is around me at almost every
moment of the day.