Personal Media Usage Pro

I have a copy of my media log for the week of May 14-21 , 2007 Over the last week , I spent : 3 hours and 25 minutes online , 90 minutes watching a DVD , 15 hours and 33 minutes watching television , 4 hours and 45 minutes reading , 1 hour and 13 minutes reading magazines , 17 minutes reading the local , and 1 hour and 21 minutes using Blackberry The log shows a marked preference for foreign media , with the possible exception of my Blackberry and the Toronto Star , which I use to keep up with friends

and local events respectively . Even though the Internet is used to accomplish everything from communications to entertainment , it is still strange that television places first in my personal Most Popular Medium ' contest . It is such an old form , first distributed widely in the 1950s . Yet , I spend more time watching it , than e-mailing , checking on friends at Facebook , or watching news clips on CNN . Perhaps it retains its popularity because of its versatility . In Television Culture , we learn that social change does occur , and television is a part of this movement (Fiske , 45 . Because it keeps changing to keep up with the important issues of a particular time television ensures its relevance and future existence

Up until now , I have not realized how much time I spent watching television - not unusual since many people from all walks of life lament the amount of time people spend on television . I notice that I haven 't recorded any time listening to the radio , iPod , or a CD . Maybe music has been pushed into the unconscious or we have come to the point where radio is no longer a medium of note . With the advent of satellite radio , the mp3 player , podcasting , and Russian sites selling music at a fraction of the price , there would be little reason to maintain a radio with the possible exception of warning the population if disaster strikes . The news is also becoming more overlooked as people switch to CNN Online and her sister sites . In for newss to remain competitive , they need to take the focus off of world events and concentrate on covering the local area extensively . Such close area coverage will never be found on an international news site such as BBC or CNN

While I spend a moderate amount of time on social sites like Facebook it has not replaced telephone and in-person conversations . While my weekly telephone /text conversations seem to pale in comparison to my online time , face-to-face interaction is

The second most used medium in this study is the book - one of the earliest mediums for disseminating information in the world . However book sales today are the direct result of successful multi-media campaigns . I 've started reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne - an Australian author with the grand ambition to change the world . She proposes to do this by putting together a panel of successful people to educate people about the power of thought...