When I wake up in the morning the first thing I do is check email, then bank account, Facebook, Instagram and Groupme. This is all on my phone and before I get out of bed, and sometimes this ritual is interrupted by me dozing back off into a brief slumber. I just might have a have a problem.
I consider myself to be a media voyeur. On a daily basis I consume as many pieces of information from as many sources that I possibly can, while rarely adding my own comment or opinion. I wake up and turn on CNN while simultaneously playing my favorite radio station in Atlanta from the comfort of my Syracuse bathroom shower (thanks to the wonderful Radio app). I sit at work, headphones in ear listening to Pandora while surfing my desktop web for Army Recruiting relevant photos, video and articles, and stop to check my twitter feed when my boss isn't looking. I'm a sucker for buzzfeed lists and political and media controversy that happens throughout any given day.
I do all of these things but I am rarely the person participating in a juicy hashtag or leaving an angry comment on an article that has made me upset by it's lack of research on a given subject. I update my personal Facebook status only a few times a year and change my profile picture only after a particularly cute night on the town.
The interesting thing about all of this is that I am a champion for social media at work. I am my organization's social media manager, I've been learning all there is to know about optimizing Hoot Suite, I give a presentation called "I love LinkedIn and you should too," I even take the time out of many days to get people's individual twitter accounts set up with a long list of suggestions on who they should follow. I am a participant in all forms of media I can get my hands on…but I keep my personal voice reserved mostly for those who know me personally.
A big news story about an event will completely consume my whole day. There are so many mediums available to get details and I enjoy few things more than watching a story unfold live. I may be a cynic because I enjoy all of the misinformation at the break of big news too. I believe that this has become much more prevalent in the age of having to get to audiences first with the story, when first often means the person on the scene with an iPhone and a twitter account. True and vetted information can't possibly come out that soon, so news agencies and the blogosphere go with first reports in the spirit of half truthful information is better than no information (breaking news was designed to correct earlier ill informed reports right??)
I for one, think the way we get information today is perfect. Story's unfold with us learning information at the same time as the reporters are giving it to us. I have beat Wolf Blitzer several times in the who heard it first game, and I look forward to those moments when I get to spend a whole evening trying to get the correct story from a mix of Reuters news wire updates and reposts on Facebook from someone who has all of the realtime information. This age of information we are in definitely has made me more conscious of what a good source of information is, what isn't and when that is an important factor. I enjoy the challenge.
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