Hello everyone, this is my 24-Hour media diary for September 1, 2024. I feel that this is a good representation of a more active day for me and my media usage, since I wanted to consume a good amount of media for this assignment.

5:00 a.m.: After waking up, I instinctively opened my phone before getting out of bed to check if I had any notifications. I didn’t have any notifications other than some from Snapchat, an app that I rarely use, and they were about people that I don’t even follow, so I didn’t open them.

5:50 a.m.: While driving to work, I listened to part of the Oasis album Definitely Maybe since there has been a lot of excitement over the band’s reunion this week.

8:00 a.m.: During my lunch break, I opened Instagram to see if there were any posts from friends or other people that may be interesting. I saw that an artist I follow released a new vinyl variant for the anniversary of one of his albums, so I went to his website to see the album and how much it was. I decided to pass since I could not justify the $50 price. I had also posted a story the day before, so I habitually checked to see who had liked and viewed it. I continued to scroll Instagram, but didn’t find any interesting posts, so I eventually left the app after a couple minutes of scrolling.

8:02 a.m.: Opened up Reddit, an app I tend to check regularly, to see if there were any interesting posts on there. Because I am a Starbucks barista, I follow a couple subreddits related to Starbucks, so I ended up seeing a couple posts of baristas commiserating with each other over some stressful days and issues. I also saw a post about the ticket sale process for Oasis tickets, showing a person in a queue for their show in Dublin with 382,000 other people. The posts appear to be trustworthy, as they contain first-hand knowledge from people with these experiences.

8:06 a.m.: With not seeing many posts on both Instagram and Reddit, I decided to check Facebook. I also went to Facebook because I often see a good amount of non-credible media on there, so I felt it would be interesting to see what was there.  I saw some recommended posts like this post that was an old viral “optical illusion”. When researching the viral optical illusion to test its validity, I found posts online comparing it to other viral illusions such as the blue and black/white and gold dress. Based on my research from different sites, it appears that while the illusion has been shared and reshared numerous times, the original post is a authentic and credible illusion. While on Facebook, I also got an advertisement from a clothing company called Pleasures, advertising a collaboration with the anime Evangelion which I am a fan of. Because I am a fan of the anime and have heard of the clothing company, I decided to purchase one of the shirts by following the link in their post to their website.

11:53 a.m.: While on a ten minute break at work, I briefly checked my email to see if there was any important emails. Because I didn’t find anything, I opened X to see if there were any interesting posts on there. There wasn’t anything very captivating, so I decided to re-open Reddit to pass the time. Because I follow a Coachella subreddit, I saw an interesting post that showed an announcement about a similar festival being cancelled. When I researched to verify the post, I found that this announcement came from the festivals official Instagram, which told me the Reddit post was accurate.

12:35 p.m.: Once I got home from work, I decided to watch a few minutes of Pokémon Season 2 using prime video, as I have been enjoying rewatching it lately.

12:44 p.m.: While driving to get food, I listened to Porter Robinson’s new album “Smile! :D” on Spotify. I have been listening to this album regularly since it was just released, and some friends and I have tickets to see him live in San Diego next month.

12:58 p.m.: I decided to get poke at a local place near me, but before I went in, I decided to check the restaurant’s Yelp! Page to refresh myself on their menu so I had an idea of what I wanted. I tend to do this before I go to a lot of food places, as I like to be prepared to order and know what to expect.

1:15 p.m.: Continued to listen to “Smile! :D” on Spotify for my drive back home.

1:42 p.m.: While eating, I decided to continue watching Pokémon.

2:00 p.m.: Scrolled through TikTok to pass time, which is something I find myself doing often on slow days. I found a post talking about the popular artist Chappell Roan, and how she recently cancelled some tour dates. The TikToker mentioned that the cancellations were done very close to the dates, and then speculated that the cancellations were for her to perform at the VMAs, which can be seen as a poor decision to choose that over performing at the tour dates. There were several parts to the TikTok, each with a introductory statement saying “Fans think Chappell Roan is changing.”. This title stood out to me as a “clickbait-y” statement and didn’t seem relevant to the rest of the information in the TikToks.  When researching the issue, I found a couple articles, one from People and one from Buzzfeed. There is speculation that the cancelled tour dates could be because of the VMAs, however there has not been confirmation of this, and Roan stated herself that it was because of “scheduling conflicts” with no further detail.

6:30 p.m.: Studied for my MCO427 Misinformation and Society class, going over the learning materials again for the first two modules. This included watching a YouTube video about how to read a Scholarly Article, reading part of “Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-Truth Era” by Nicole A. Cooke, lecture videos, and a Medium article about misinformation and distraction.

7:02 p.m.: Took a quiz for MCO427 Misinformation and Society and luckily got 100% on it.

7:54 p.m.: Watched part of a trending video from YouTuber Jacksepticeye, a gameplay of a game called “Still Wakes The Deep”. I used to watch Jacksepticeye often, so it was fun to watch one of his videos after a while.

8:00 p.m.: Scrolled X for a few minutes to see if there were any interesting posts. I found a video that was described as showing 15 high-rises being demolished in China due to the construction company running out of money to complete it. I found this interesting, however I wasn’t sure about its validity, so I decided to look it up. I found an article talking about this specific video, explaining that it did happen and for the reason discussed in the description, however while demolishing buildings does happen due to a new policy being adopted, the article made it seem like the video was an extreme example of this.

9:00 p.m.: Played a game called Omori on my Nintendo Switch. A friend highly recommended it, and I have heard other friends discuss it so I started playing it recently. At a couple points, I ran into a couple spots I couldn’t get past, so I looked up hints to get past them. I found a wiki site dedicated to the game and providing information to help gamers learn more about it.

Reflection

After a day of relatively high media usage, I found that I end up using media without really thinking about it. I often found myself passively scrolling different social media platforms, aimlessly looking for interesting content. I also found it somewhat surprising that I viewed a relatively small amount of valuable news or research media. I think that while these 24 hours contained an unusual lack of said media, I would like to consume more than I currently do. I found that I saw less questionable media than I expected, similar to the 24-hour media diary I did for MCO427. I think this could have to do with the fact that I limit the amount of misinformation I see as much as I can by blocking or avoiding people and accounts that regularly spread it. I think the most credible media sources were from sites like Medium, and for social media sites Reddit. Overall, I think that this 24-Hour media diary was a good way for me to analyze the media that I consume daily.