Consumption Log

Consumption log

10AM: I awoke to an alarm of a ring tone provided by my phone entitled Waves that has a catchy techno beat. I then got into the shower and used Pantene Pro-V shampoo and conditioner, meant to renew the moisture in my hair. I also used Caress body soap and Neutrogena face wash to complete my hygiene routine. After my shower I brushed my teeth using Colgate total toothpaste and went back to my room to get dressed. After getting dressed I went to the kitchen to have Captain Crunch cereal for breakfast and a glass of Simply Orange orange juice.

11AM: My boyfriend was now awake and playing video games (his daily routine). As I got ready for school I heard Call of Duty in the background, which I tried to cover with music playing from my ipod. I put on makeup, mostly Cover Girl brand and sprayed myself with Nollie perfume.

12 AM: I texted a couple friends about plans for the night and then left the house to head for school. I walk to school everyday and sometimes I listen to music and other times I enjoy the sounds of the outdoors. Today I walked without music. On the way to school I passed a gas station with high prices that also had a convenient store and a sign out front saying what they had to offer. They reeled me in. I stopped to buy a cup of coffee to warm me up on my journey to campus. As the cashier was checking my coffee I skimmed through the Durango Herald.

1 PM: I attended my American Literature class. The teacher had a PowerPoint presentation prepared discussing the reading from our book The Heath Anthology of American Literature by Paul Lauter. I used my Mead five star notebook to take notes from her presentation. When class was over I passed a bulletin board on my way to exit the building. The board consisted of flyers for rooms for rent, flyers of upcoming events, and a flyer for a summer job opportunity in Durango. I stopped to look at the events and then started my journey back home.

2ishPM- 4PMish: A few friends and I went to see the movie Coraline, directed by Henry Selick. The movie was pretty good, worth seeing I think.

5PM- 8PM: We went back to my friend’s apartment and did much of nothing for the next few hours. Television was playing in the background but not really being watched. I saw various commercials and previews for upcoming shows. We went on the Facebook website to look at pictures. I also went to cnn.com to check some news as well as hotmail.com to check my e-mail. CNN had a big ad on their screen of a new energy-efficient MacBook laptop. Hotmail also had a list of ads scrolling down the side of the screen for various items such as t-shirts from Snorgtees and a chance to win a trip to Rome.

8PM- BED: I returned home and watched a movie before falling asleep. This was a relatively lazy day.

This hour by hour consumption log of my day is not nearly as detailed as it could be but the reality is the amount of media I was exposed to would take forever to list. For example, when I went into that convenient store I could go through the different brands and tactics of marketing I was exposed to. The little last minute items you would want to buy placed on the check-out counter were tempting, but I resisted and stuck to just coffee. The movie theater had posters all around of films that were coming soon. Before the movie started various video trailers were shown that sparked interest. Media on top of media is all around us and seeps into our brains even if we don’t realize. This particular day was fairly lackadaisical and yet I was still exposed to a great amount of media. In sixteen hours I was exposed to text, images, sound, newspaper, film, DVDs, flyers, and more. This assignment really proved the insane amount of media we are exposed to every day.