Media Diet | Homework Helper

Part A. Media Tracking
It is important for people to have an awareness of the various types of media that inundate our culture and the degree to which we use those media. Thus, I want each student to keep track of your phone/ipad use 3 days – and also keep in mind the amount of media in addition to your phones that you are exposed to as this will only track your phones.:
Simply include screen shots of your phone use, via Iphone “screen time tracker” or if you have a different phone, there are apps available to do this. Pay attention to hours spent per day, week.Pay attention to “pick-ups” per day.Pay attention to time spent on various apps and what the breakdown is. This info will be incorporated into your papers, so that you can use it when you reflect upon your media diet.
Part B. Media Diet
As a class, we will spend 3 days on a media diet.Dates TBD.
For this diet – no tv, movies, youtube, texting, social networking, music.If you cheat – you must mention in your journal. Please only use your iphones for telephone calls.Please let you parents know you might not see texts.Please only use computers for schoolwork. PLEASE CONTINUE TO CHECK EMAIL FOR ACADEMIC REASONS.IF YOU DO NOT VOLUNTEER TO GIVE UP YOUR PHONE THEN YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE SCREENSHOTS SHOWING 0 HOURS OF SOCIAL MEDIA, ETC.
Please be ready to turn in your phones to your teacher to be safely locked up. You can see me, if there is a reason you cannot or really do not feel comfortable doing this.You will still be media dieting, but trusted to keep your phone in your possession.
Part C -Essay. Write a 4-5 page reflective essay regarding the media diet and media tracking and what you learned about your media use and yourself. MINIMUM 1200 WORDS.
Consider how this affected you and your life and your relationships. How did it affect your studies?Your concentration? Your relationship with significant others?Your social life?How did it make you feel when others used their phones in your presence?Any impact on your physical fitness? Your feelings of connectedness to the world?Your ability to be an engaged citizen? Did you go through FOMO? Will you make any changes to your habits from this experience?How might these changes affect your life?
Please include any insights that relate to class concepts, or textbook information and especially information from the book “breaking up with your phone.”Did anything you learned in class help you look or think differently about the media you are exposed to regularly?
The idea is for you to understand the amount of time you spend with media, understand your levels of possible addiction, and understand how it feels to be without it for a period of time.
Suggested Reflection Questions – Don’t try to cover all of these – rather, try to focus in on one or two major themes that impacted you the most.Depth versus Breadth.YOUR PAPER SHOULD HAVE A THESIS STATEMENT.
Do you notice a cultural change from your home environment to the college environment that affects your involvement with media? Is your exposure to media more or less than before you came to college?Is this a positive or negative shift?What might be the pros and cons of staying connected to people from back home?Has it had a positive or negative impact on you or does it impact your ability to adjust and connect to your new environment?Consider studies about college freshman and social media use being connected to lonliness.

Does media use interfere with making person to person connections that may be important? Would you connect to more people if you stayed offline more?Do you use it as a crutch to hide, not socialize?

How do you think it impacts your ability to socialize, or have intimate conversations, or connect fully with a significant other?

How does media use effect your self-esteem?Do you compare your life and your looks to others? Do you use photo editing apps to make yourself look better? If so, why?What effect does this have on you and on society?

Do you find yourself multitaskingbetween media use and spending time with friends/family? Should you feel bad about giving your phone priority over the people you are spending time with?Do you use your phone in class while teachers are speaking? Talk about respect, and others’ feelings.

Are you missing out on things related to family, friends, school, society, news, collaborating, being present, nature, etc. while spending too much time on your phone? Did this change during the diet?Did you feel more or less connected?

Do you find yourself multitasking (or engaging in continuous partial attention as discussed in class) between your studies and media use? Did the diet help you concentrate on any aspect of your studies more?Think about whether you were less distracted while studying, without notifications or multiple screens open.More free time to study? Less anxiety?
Please follow this format : 12 point Times New Roman.1” margins only (please check your setting and make sure it does not default to 1.5” or 2”).No title or name on any pages except the cover page.
What you will turn in (all stapled together.No bunny ears.No late papers):
1. Cover Page
2. 1-2 pages showing screen shots of media use. Include whatever you feel comfortable sharing.
3. 4-5 page reflection/analysis on media media diet and media tracking analytics – 1200 words minimum.
4. Reference page with textbook, breaking up with your phone book, and anything else you use such as articles, documentaries, class lectures. Please refer to www.purdueowl.com to learn how to cite in APA format.