Media Use(less) Blog

As far as Media Use Blogs go, I’m going to have to say that this will be the most useless. Having 9 out of the last fourteen days without internet in my house is quite the blot in the copy book when it comes to my Media Use. However, seeing as though we can’t let such setbacks set us back much so I’ll make the most of the data I have collected.

Let’s start, as I tend to, with comparing myself to others. I’m sure I could go into a big scientific exposition and conduct tests and experiments pertaining to the direct influence that the internet has on the lives of the youth and yadda yadda teen binge drinking yadda yadda Kony 2012 yadda yah. But to quote Oasis, “I’m sure, you’ve heard it all before” so I’ll keep that to a minimum.

            According to the survey, I’m a sheep. A follower. A pedestrian who lives within a very tight mould of a Journalism One One One One student. Apart from being a male, the only difference between me and the majority is my Samsung phone. It’s like we’re all playing Simon Says and everyone wants to win. To take a closer look at this let me put all my puns on the table right now, and serve it up for you.

	Socialising			Uni Work		Entertainment			Reading
	Facebook	Phone	Twitter	Blogging	A.R.I.U	Television	TheChive	Gaming	Internet	Print
Monday 19/3	2	1	0.5	0.5	0	0	0.5	1	0.5	2
Tuesday 20/3	1.5	2.5	0	0	2	0	0.5	0	0.5	1
Wednesday 21/3	1.5	1.5	0	0.5	1	0	1	0	1	1.5
Thursday 22/3	2	2	0	0	3	0	1	0	0	0
Friday 23/3	3	1.5	0	0	2	0	1	1	0	0.5
Saturday 24/3	3.5	2.5	0	0	0	0	0.5	1.5	0.5	1
Sunday 25/3	2	3	0	0	0	1	0.5	0	0	0.5
Monday 26/3	1.5	2	0	0	2	0	1	1	0	1
Tuesday 27/3	2	1.5	0	0	1	0	0.5	1.5	0	0.5
Wednesday 28/3	2.5	2	0	0	1	0	0.5	0	0.5	0.5
Total	Facebook	Phone	Twitter	Blogging	A.R.I.U	Television	TheChive	Gaming	I.R.	Print
1	21.5	19.5	0.5	1	12	1	7	6	3	8.5

*Here are some quick administrivia points about the table. For the sake of nice numbers I’ve rounded everything to the nearest half an hour. A.R.I.U: whilst it sounds very official, merely stands for Academic Related Internet Use.

I assume you skimmed over that, so let’s take a look at a graph because everyone loves a good graugh.

One equivalent that can be drawn between the lines of my media use and the survey is that my internet use is just a little bit higher than average; for example on the fourth day of media use my true love gave to me 6 hours of internet use (about twice the amount your average Journalism student would use).

As seen on the graph I don’t watch a lot of television, I don’t tweet and I try not to blog (don’t worry I’m writing about my lectures still) but I do try to read at least half an hour a night, be it books, articles on the internet or very rarely print media. I follow the Chive fairly religiously but the biggest eater of my time is most obviously Facebook. I couldn’t tell you why, but I am obsessed with checking out what Sarah wore on Saturday, or what Eric thinks about Tammy’s break up. Again I fit right in, with 91% of the course also professing their obsessing with FB.

There is just so potential analysis yet so little space to do it in! It’s a bit frustrating, but like a Scrabble player with no vowels I’m out of words. I hope you found this insightful and interesting rather than repetitive and regurgitative.

The Beginning

The Beginning - it's a good place to start, and for me it starts with this quick point:

I hate blogs.

You know how you don't really know anything about something except that you hate it? Well that's me and blogs. Although that's not to say my hatred is completely unsubstantiated, and when I say hatred I really mean disgust. But a little bit less than disgust - distaste maybe. I have a distaste for blogs in the same way people support Kony 2012. "Yeah I'll voice my opinion, but I can't be fucked to do anything about it."
We can say naughty words on here, right? "As long as it adds dramatic meaning, and drives the character exposition" - words of a wise drama teacher.
"I did a radio interview with XM radio... they said 'you can swear on XM radio.' No shit, cause nobody can hear it. You can swear in the woods, too!" - Mitch Hedberg, about XM radio (a radio show with an equivalent audience size to this blog). I believe mathematicians would call this number h, approaching 0.

Mitch Hedberg

Nonetheless, just like a history tour of a 14th century castle, I'm going to take you on a journey that you'll neither enjoy nor learn from. See, there's a problem with blogs: I could read multitudinous amounts of these "mind drools" for days on end, and not learn shit about shit. This is not writing, this is pulling my brain out and squishing it against the keys and seeing what comes out.

I digress, as I do oft, from the main reason I hate blogs... I don't really, it's mainly just the word. Blog. Ew. Web Log is fine. What happened to Web Log? Are we going to change Captain's Log to... a Slog? In any case, it would be infinitely more interesting than any Web Log. They don't strike me as being the squeezing of brain pulp and producing word vomit into an internet page. That's one of the reasons I bought myself a typewriter, and whenever I want to write something substantial I'll pull it out, wind the ink and get click-clacking. It allows you to think, and take care with your words - actually put something in that people can get out. Allow me to introduce to you Ollie:

I like words, I like reading words, I like saying words, I like making up new words and whenever you make up a new word (be it an amalgamation of two, to make your life that much easier; or a word that is only used by you and your friends to describe a state but "drunk" just doesn't go far enough) the feeling that you get when it comes out and just blows everyone away like the Dragonborn saying Fus Ro Dah, is... is... unequivogasmical... ... ...

Okay, that was a bad example - but you see my point. (for those of you who are still wondering what Fus Ro Dah is: )

 Blog is a word I just don't understand. Blog. Blog. blogblogblogblogblogblogblog. If you say it enough times in your head really really fast you sound like a chicken.
... ... ...
Well you do, don't you? I know you tried it. Maybe try saying the first one and extending the vowel sound, and then say the rest really really fast. Now put on a chicken accent. SEE! I told you.

So like a bad drummer I am way out of time, so I congratulate you on reading all this. If you skipped to here I congratulate you also - you have 5 minutes more life to live than the suckers who waded through my rambling about nothing. I should probably find out what this blog is supposed to be about - but consider this an introduction.