Exercise 2: Media consumption Experiment
I choose to document the how often I check on my phone and/or computer throughout a weekday. Right off the bat, the checks of my phone was about a dozen or so a day. However, that number doesn’t count reacting directly to messages or alerts; that number is turning the screen on to eye any notifications and what have you. Pretty consistently, I would always check my phone when leaving a class too in addition to any time I’d be separated from it for a time (eg leaving it in my room while I cook dinner). I didn’t pay much attention to the number of text messages themselves because the number is so inconsistent and volatile day to day: in a day where I don’t really communicate with anyone via SMS, the number is just one or two from automated systems or simply questions from people that require one reply. Other times, the number of individual messages can easily reach well over twenty or thirty if I get into a discussion with friends or something substantial. Speaking of apps and websites, I realized there’s actually a bit of convergence emerging in the web itself. Whereas a few years ago, I’d visit a number of different sites checking on news and so on, now I may just browser ‘reddit.com’ which links together much of what used to be spread out. I thought that was a pretty interesting note.
I like to think of myself as some outlier that’s not got his nose stuck into his phone, but I guess no one is really immune from this digital takeover. At the same time, I have not much of an issue leaving my phone alone for hours if I’m not expecting anything important; I hate leaving it at home when I go out, but that’s probably more of a rational fear of car break downs and having roommates open the door if I lose my keys. I enjoy being ‘connected,’ but don’t feel that I need to be.
A lot has changed in a decade. Everything moves at a faster pace, with everyone always being connected, responses are expected a lot faster and it seems like there is a creeping intrusion of weekends and vacations of work messages. Information is also taken for granted, you can learn practically about anything at the press of a key. I find video games to be a great example of this actually; numerous guides, strategies, and walkthroughs exist online in text and video for any and every video game you could play. I still remember when physical guides, printed on paper, for games were the rage and you were up the creek if you were stuck in a game without one. That was it! Stuck on a boss? Will your parents buy you the guide? Does your friend know how to beat it? No? Well, tough luck kid. The way ‘gamers’ take for granted a helping hand to assist them today is analogous to the loads of information that are easily reached on any subject. You can access the history, practice, and mechanics of anything in minutes. And all this… is in your pocket.
The technology we have is great. No, it’s amazing or some even stronger word I can’t think of. Everything has evolved and the way we consume and produce has changed. Digital photography absolutely redefined the art and practice; there’s no expensive and time consuming development of film any more, we can view and hone of skills and work instantaneously. Anyone can listen to collections of music from around the world and from small artists who would never have had their work on a record store shelf. Rewriting a paper after multiple drafts means moving around paragraphs and picking apart words and sentences rather than manually typing out the entire thing. My point is that it’s impossible to define someone as an addict of technology. It’s too inherent to how we work these days. We’re all dependents of technology. We’re all addicted in our own ways.