This is my media diet journal for August 22nd, 2023! This was a typical weekday in which I spent most of the morning working at Starbucks and the afternoon doing school work.

5:30 a.m.: Once I wake up, between my first and second alarms going off I check my texts, emails, and Facebook. It's a habit I've tried to break but my will is not yet strong enough to resist the urge to check my phone first thing in the morning.
5:50 a.m.: I always listen to Spotify on my drive to work. This morning it was the new album by one of my favorite songwriters, Gregory Alan Isakov.

6 a.m. to 10 a.m.: I am a barista at Starbucks so while I'm working my phone generally isn't nearby and I'm not exposed to much media other than internal communications and corporate announcements. I do however love hearing what customers are listening to in their car in the drive-through.

10:30 a.m.: I often spend my breaks browsing Twitter. On this particular day, I read about players my favorite soccer team, Manchester United, might be buying in the transfer window.

2:00 p.m.: When my shift was over at 2pm I quickly checked my email, Facebook, and Instagram. There wasn't much new so I returned to Spotify to keep me company on the drive home. This time I wasn't in the mood for music so turned on the latest episode of my favorite Podcast, You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes. This episode was an interview with fellow comedian Craig Conant. I enjoy podcasts while driving because they are often light, entertaining, and don't require my full attention.

2:30 p.m.: When I get home from work I often prepare a small lunch while watching YouTube. This time I reheated some chicken and rice and watched the channel “Mark Goldbridge That's Football" which is a talk show about soccer. I'm discovering that most of the long-form video and audio content I consume throughout the dya is in the background while I'm doing another activity. 

3:00 p.m.: Perhaps my favorite media tradition is what I have called a TikTok Bath (I have not yet trademarked this) in which I take a bath and watch TikTok videos for 30 minutes or so. This feels like a nice transition point in my day where I take a break and go from working as a barista to studying as a student.

3:30 p.m.: This was the first time I opened my laptop that day. I again checked my emails, texts, and social media pages. I don't like typing messages out on my phone so once I was on the laptop I responded to a couple of emails and replied to my family group chat. Much to the dismay of my mother, I usually only respond to texts once or twice a day. I also visited NPR.org for my daily dose of news. 

3:45 p.m.: This was the first day I started working on my beginner guitar class on Canvas. While doing school work I try to keep all other tabs closed and avoid looking at email or social media. Module one of the class involved a little bit of reading but mostly instructional videos on guitar. 

5:00 p.m.: My brain was finished for the day so I decided to check my email one last time before signing off. I did a quick browse of Facebook and Instagram before shutting my laptop.

5:30 p.m.: When we are free in the evening, my partner and I love to cook a meal while listening to an album on vinyl. This time we made a greek salad while listening to a new album we got from an artist called Stephen Kellogg. Even though we have access to so much music on Spotify, I love to listen to vinyl because it doesn't involve a screen. I also like that I can't skip songs. It feels like a better way to fully listen to music without being distracted.

6:00 p.m.: On the rare occasion when my partner and I don't enjoy dinner while gazing into each other's candlelit eyes, we eat on the couch while streaming a show. On this night it was the much-anticipated return of one of our favorite shows, Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. Once we were all caught up on Only Murders in the Building we watched a couple of episodes of The Office.

8:00 p.m.: Before bed my partner and I will watch TikTok Videos together. Often times we will send each other videos throughout the day to watch together at night. At some point, I hope I have the strength to turn off all screens for a couple of hours before sleeping. I know it would be better for my health but for the time being we are creatures of habit. 

In reflecting on my media consumption habits, I've stumbled upon a few habits: 

• I try to limit my time on screens and scrolling my phone with mixed results. I'd like to replace some of the time spent checking social media with time reading a book or playing guitar.
• Much of the media I consume throughout the day is in the background or while I'm doing something else.
• The majority of the media I consume is for entertainment purposes. Upon studying the results of this exercise I'd like to add in more informative media to my diet.
• My media use on this particular day was very consistent with my media use on most other days. I often go to the same type of media while doing the same activity at the same time of day.

As for my most credible media sources…

I usually only check the news once a day and it is usually npr.org. I have a mixed relationship with the news; while I want to be well-informed I know that spending too much time reading the news will bring on anxiety, anger, and other negative emotions. Because of this, I have intentionally decided to check the news once a day. In my experience, NPR seems to be less sensational and more fact than other outlets. It is also what my parents always had on in the car.