This past year I had a resolution, of sorts. It was to log, day by day, the amount of media that I experienced. For the sake of convenience, music, YouTube videos, and comic books were all exempt from being logged. TV shows, movies, and books were the main focus here.
In picking a month to show you, I chose September in that it was a month entirely spent at school, without any breaks. All media was experienced in the free time I had outside of classes and schoolwork. Breaks tend to severely skew the average amount; an example of this is my watching five seasons of 30 Rock in January during the Christmas break.
Media in September
Television
- 8 episodes of Deadliest Warrior [40 minutes each]
- 1 episode of Futurama [20 minutes]
- 1 episode of The IT Crowd [20 minutes]
- 5 episodes of Cromartie High School [10 minutes each]
- 2 episodes of Regular Show [10 minutes each]
- 2 episode of Adventure Time [10 minutes each]
- 7 episodes of Breaking Bad [45 minutes each]
- 4 episodes of How I Met Your Mother [20 minutes each]
- 1 episode of The Office [20 minutes]
- 1 episode of Community [20 minutes]
- 2 episodes of The Big Bang Theory [20 minutes each]
- 2 episodes of New Girl [20 minutes each]
Film
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World [112 minutes]
- Helvetica [80 minutes]
- Paul [104 minutes]
- Batman & Robin [125 minutes]
- Hot Rod [88 minutes]
- Ironclad [121 minutes]
- Terminator Salvation [115 minutes]
Books
- Part of The Odyssey
- Most of The Aeneid
The average American [which I am not, being neither] watches more than 151 hours of TV a month. With that in mind, I feel strangely validated. We don’t have a television in our house, and instead hook our laptops up to a monitor in the living room. This means that there is no casual turning on of the TV, no languid channel surfing. Apparently this has contributed greatly to my watching 80% less than most people.
I began this blog post with the intent to depict exactly how much media I consume in a given month, and hold that up as a shocking example of a 21-year old’s usage of his time. Contrary to that, I’ve discovered that I’m not doing too badly compared to America. At 28.5 hours per month, I’m actually doing really great.
Does this mean that I should continue to do what I’ve been doing? My answer is no. As I’ve mentioned, September was actually a low month in regards to media viewed. The month after I watched easily twice as many shows. The fact that this still ranks me as watching 40% as much as most has inspired me not to watch the same amount, but less. I’m doing better than average, but better doesn’t equal good. As someone who says he cares for literature, I need to at least pretend that that’s true in my actions. And that’s as good a resolution as any.
Culture War Reporters 
My current excuse for not reading as much literature: very little access to a library and not enough money to purchase books for myself.
Also, a thought-provoking post in light of the class I took in mass media this past semester. Not that I have much to say about those thoughts here, unfortunately.
Totally hear you on this one. Same deal with me and music… I don’t spend nearly as much time writing as I do consuming other media, and I don’t like that. This is an interesting blog.