During the first week of my first communications class ten years ago, the teacher had us do an exercise. “I want you to record your media habits for 24 hours, or take a break from all media for 24 hours, and tell the record your actions in place of using media,” she said.
I struggled for a few moments after hearing that. I contemplated the horror of a day without TV, radio, or the Internet, and quickly decided that I would instead record my media activity.
I don’t have the paper that I wrote based on that assignment, but I do remember the gist of what I discovered; even in 1999, I was an internet junkie. This was the time when everyone was still enamored with a Yahoo home page that aggregated custom information, including separate modules that regularly updated weather, sports, and e-mail status. I used these tools to their fullest extent.
It was my second year in New England, but I still had an interest in Southern California, where I grew up. Being a baseball fan, I used the Internet and my Yahoo page to track both the Dodgers and Angels as they made their way to the playoffs. Newspapers had yet to fully bloom online, but I got as much of my news as I could using Yahoo search. E-mail was a primary means of communication, as its instant delivery often allowed for quick planning and action.
Other media habits at the time included daily use of the TV for news and sports, and my trusty pager that would buzz my belt every once in a while. I didn’t have cell phone back then and my land-line served me well, even though it was used most of the time for Internet access.
Flash forward ten years, and my clunky desktop and dial-up are now replaced by a sleek laptop and wifi. Social media applications keep me informed of the activities of friends, family, and network associates
Television doesn’t appeal to me anymore, I find network TV to be insulting to my intelligence, and cable shows are often just as bad. Almost anything I want to see I can find via You Tube, Hulu, or the like. You Tube has replaced television as my most valued source of entertainment. As a classically trained musician, I find the wealth of classical music clips, (overtures, arias, solo work) available on You Tube to be staggering.
The radio, once a big part of my life, has also gone the way of the dodo. Internet streams targeted to specific musical genres offer generous music choices with very little interruption. My sports consumption habits have changed in the last few years. I still watch the Red Sox on cable, and I can follow the Dodgers live in a separate mini-window on the computer, with legendary broadcaster Vin Scully calling the action. This year’s US Open, my favorite tennis event, also streams live over the Internet, exposing fans to some of the grueling action off the main show courts.
With RSS feeds and other tools, I now have the capabilities to go on information overload should I choose. I follow 12 feeds in my mail reader, usually skimming the headlines, quickly deciding if the post is worth my time. If I’ve skipped a few days and face 100 unread posts, I’ll usually just mark them all as read and move on. I also follow 10 feeds in my browser.
And while the option exists extend many of these tools to my cell phone, I choose not to take advantage. My life style doesn’t yet necessitate instant access.
It’s amazing to see the progress of these tools over the last decade, it makes you wonder what the media and communications landscape will look like in another decade.
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Thanks to Chris Brogan for the inspiration to share this post
