For this assignment I was tasked with tracking my media consumption for 24 hours. I will say I have 2 caveats for this assignment, I have been trying to lessen my time on my phone and online in general, and I am currently on vacation with my family so this day I also spent most of it with my 11 month old daughter which led to me spending very little time on my phone. I will circle back at the end of the post to reflect on a normal day of media consumption for me.
8:20. After getting myself and the family going for the day I finally have time to check my phone from the night before. My wife and I try to leave our phones outside of the room when we sleep to avoid endless scrolling at night and scrolling first thing in the morning. My first app I check is the bible app, something small I try to do everyday for myself. After that it’s usually on to X where I get a general pulse on what’s going on in the world. I’m quickly greeted with a post from Jack Mac breaking down the 49ers scammer, a story I’ve seen making the rounds and one I find personally hilarious. This post turns out to provide some great context for anyone not in the loop about it. A few tweets down (xeets?) Im greeted with a post from clash report regarding the straight of Hormuz, though I have no reason to doubt if this post is false, because clash report does a good job not making outlandish claims. A great tool I love to use on X is Grok, there’s always an easy shortcut on each tweet and it does a great job breaking down the post and providing context. X also does an amazing job with their community notes which can help call out false or misleading posts. I’m then greeted with some click bait from an account claiming to be a CPA. I’m not interested enough to decide if there’s more to it, but usually with financial posts on X people leave out a lot of details to drive interaction on posts.
9:40. After putting my child down for their 9:30 nap I bust out my laptop and check my instagram DMs and see if there’s anything interesting. I decide that there’s not and make the decision to capitalize on the opportunity to get a workout in while I can
10:10 On my way to the gym.I put on the Shawn Ryan podcast with Clint Emerson and listen to the interview as I workout. I enjoy hearing his experiences and war stories. The only thing I’m wary off when I listen to this podcast is Shawn Ryan’s ( the host) somewhat snide comments about the current state of America. I’m only wary because sometimes my X algorithm feeds me conspiracy theories that people like Shawn Ryan and Tucker Carlson are sowing dissent into young men as part of a “bigger plan”. Like everything I never know what to believe so any comments on either side are taken with a grain of salt.
3:00 PM: After a nice outing with my child and father which included the beach and lunch, I grab my phone and check X again. The first post I’m greeted with is someone claiming that the US is hunting Russian subs off the east coast, this makes me curious so I head to the replies and the first one quickly debunks it saying that they do this all the time, and that the flight levels of 17,000 and 25,000 feet are not low. As I revisit the post writing this I see a community note saying that this account posts constant fear mongering claims, and also says that the Navy flies there all the time. This is the first legitimate disinformation I come across this day, As always the best disinformation has a little truth in it, yes the Navy was flying P-8s in that area, but it was simply a training sortie and not them hunting subs. I can Imagine a scenario in which it was someone’s first day on the internet and they fall for this.
3:48 PM: I head to the store and I get a meme in my fantasy football group chat that the San Francisco 49ers have released Daejon Love. Who was the scammer I saw the story on earlier in the day. I can see how this would confuse someone who’s not in the loop. This playful meme could easily spread misinformation if you didn’t know it was fake.
4:35 PM: After returning from the store I scroll X again and see 2 posts talking about prediction markets being able to be regulated at the state level. The fact that I saw 2 posts on it immediately led me to believe it’s true and I did no further digging.
5:54 PM I check facebook on my phone and am greeted by a post talking about flock cameras, a hot topic in society lately. I’m not quite sure the point the post is trying to make is if it’s pity for police officers or defense of flock cameras. I don’t make much of it, but I do think posts like these are common bot posts and or someone with a hidden agenda trying to spread their message, this one being pro flock camera.
11:10 PM After a long evening I do some mindless scrolling on X and see a post from osintdefender talking about the UKs sovereignty over the Falklands. I have no reason to doubt this post as I feel everything from this account is very solid, and when mistakes are made they will delete posts and or correct themselves.
I really enjoyed having this assignment. I think on this day it gave me a good perspective when it comes to consuming media. For myself I do it so much it’s second nature. Simple memes that are disinformation are just memes to me. But for other people it really is hard to sift through all the trash. I think that’s why I lean toward sites like X. The built in fact checking and community aspect just make it so much easier to verify stories
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