How Media Accounting Has Become A Part Of My Everyday Routine

Throughout my time of using social media, there has been a point where my content went from having meaning behind it to where I was posting useless and meaningless information that had nothing to do with the important events that was going on within my life. For example, from the tweets below,

 I went from expressing how excited I was to have the opportunity to rush in a sorority at my university to talking about my shower routine and the process of what happens before I go in and after I get out. Because this unnecessary tweet overshadowed what could be important and informative, it was instead looking for attention and not even close to newsworthy. From this example, this is what Humphreys called “sharing the everyday” which is a media accounting technique that is used by us social media users every day because it shows how we share literally every single move we make, or we express exactly what we’re doing when in the end, it’s not necessary. 

Now, before social media ever existed, there was a different way on how people expressed their day to day lives that was very specific and probably too much in detail, but they did this by writing in diaries that dates back all the way in history where women would write about tasks, duties, and work that was often domestic or personal. These personal diaries have been defined as first-person writings about the activities of the author himself or herself written about the present in the present, but all diary writings are a form of media accounting regardless of the type and content. Now, when talking about how media accounting has become apart of my day to day routine, it was amazing when I realized how much I actually go on social media and how much time I put toward it to fit within my schedule without even realizing it.

 For example, throughout my typical busy college life, there are always some free moments when I’m not in class or doing homework where I have the time to go on social media and make a post or casually scroll through my timeline. Within this free time, it gives me a chance to reflect and record what happened within that day or what is going to happen in the future. According to Humphreys, the routinization of media accounting is important because by repeating this, it becomes second nature to us to the point where we automatically go through the motions. Basically, because I’m so accustomed to just going on my phone and “checking” it when I’m not doing anything shows that it is a habit that I now have without even knowing it. Another habit of media accounting frequently is how it fits within my daily routine without even realizing it is how every single morning when I wake up for school my phone is the first thing I grab and I go straight to all my social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, but mostly Facebook first because I enjoy watching those viral videos that makes me laugh before I get up to start my day. Then throughout the day as I said before, it is usually when I have time because college keeps me busy and not so much on my phone, but in the books. Then at night before I go to sleep, I usually watch YouTube videos or scroll through all my social media platforms again until I eventually get tired and go to sleep and do it all over again the next day. 

So in conclusion, media accounting has come apart of my everyday life without even trying to fit it in within my schedule. It is unbelievable to think that just checking up on social media is time consuming and taking up the time where I could be doing something productive such as finishing homework, getting a good workout in, getting breakfast, or even calling my family to see how their doing. Social media has become apart of our lives forever and is something we may not even be able to let go of too easily even if we tried to. The habits I accustomed from repeating the social media daily check ups is now something I must live with forever unless somehow social media dies out and passes on like any other trend does, but it always somehow finds its way back and goes right back into my daily routine. Now, when thinking about “sharing the everyday” from your life, consider what you can post differently and try to determine what you think has meaning and what doesn’t. Overall, think of what kind of a person you would be if social media did not exist and how having the opportunity of being able to share your everyday life on the web helps you develop into the person you want to be or in other words, "are trying" to be. Being able to reflect on this could eventually help you realize that sharing every move you make could possibly be dangerous or even look a tad bit weird, but could also save you from troubles in the future as well.