I always knew this day and age was filled with social media, I mean who doesn’t? Everywhere we turn there is an 8 year old with the newest iPhone or a toddler with an iPad in hand. We may think we have a grasp on how much media we consume, but in reality we have no idea. Technology has become such an integral part of our day to day life, so much that we cannot imagine what it would be like without it. For this assignment, I monitored the amount of media I was intaking over a span of 24 hours. (Here’s the link to my Media Consumption Log). To my surprise, I have come to realize that I subconsciously click the unlock button on my smart phone several times a day in hope of a notification popping up on my screen.

This summer I spent 2 and a half months attending a summer camp in the Sierra National Forest where I was a counselor for children ages 5-16. I had very minimal access to phone and internet, as I was in the middle of the mountains. The camp held very strong values, one of which was the “no technology” policy. They take pride in giving campers and counselors the experience of “real-ationships.” During my first few days at camp I was constantly checking my pockets for my cellphone, but eventually I became accustomed to checking my watch for the time and never feeling the need to look at my phone.

After a few days back at school this August, I caught myself forgetting my phone when I went places and barely relying on it at all. Since I’ve been back for 2 weeks now, things have changed. I have succumbed back into the 21^stcentury lifestyle of having a heavy pocket. After this assignment, what I have become most of aware of is not how much time I spend on my devices, but rather what I am doing on them. It has become evident to me that the vast majority of my media intake is entertainment rather than education. My media consumption log is made up of mostly Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or text message loggings. As I was waited in line for Starbucks I checked my phone a whopping 14 times in a matter of less than 5 minutes. I do this because apps like Instagram keep me updated on what everyone did over the past week/weekend, Snapchat keeps me in touch with my closest friends on an hourly basis, and Facebook lets me know what is going on in my sorority. Checking these sites become a force of habit.  I am so concerned with what is going on in the social scene I forget the important things around me.

The more I thought about it, I noticed I rarely check news sites. Yes, I get emails from the Skimm every weekday morning and catch glimpses of article titles from CNN, but is that enough? According to my log, when I am bored I aimlessly scroll through social media only to load and re-load a page that probably won’t refresh in a matter of minutes instead of refreshing a news app that can give me information I can use in the real world.