The document explores an individual's media consumption over a week, visualizing their browser history on a desktop computer. It references Marshall McLuhan's concept of media as extensions of ourselves and discusses the types of media accessed, including social networks and various websites. The analysis reveals patterns of usage and highlights a distinction between desktop and mobile media consumption, particularly noting higher news access on mobile devices.

1. Media diet
A week of browser history visualized
!
MAS 700 – Future of News and Participatory Media - 2015 Spring - MIT Medialab
!
@miguelpaz

2. Media (the plural of medium) are the collective communication outlets or
tools that are used to store and deliver information or data. It is either
associated with communication media, or the specialized communication
businesses such as: print media and the press, photography, advertising,
cinema, broadcasting (radio and television), and/or publishing.
-Wikipedia

3. McLuhan's concept of “media" McLuhan uses interchangeably the words
medium, media and technology. For McLuhan a medium is "any extension
of ourselves", or more broadly, "any new technology". In addition to forms
such as newspapers, television and radio, McLuhan includes the light bulb,
cars, speech and language in his definition of "media": all of these, as
technologies, mediate our communication; their forms or structures affect
how we perceive and understand the world around us.
-Wikipedia

4. Given the foregoing…
What Media do I consume in 1 week on a desktop computer?

5. What I did:
I download my browser history as a csv file and tried a couple of things that
did not work
I googled “how to visualize my browser history”
I used 3 chrome apps to see and better understand my browsing history:
Visualize my history to generate a view of my entire browser history
Iconic History to see step by step the type of media consumption
Webmapper to see my browsing history in size according to how often I
visit a webpageyou (similar pages are grouped into clusters)

6. Over 72 days of browser history:
Desktop is for work,
entertainment &
community mostly.
!
But sites like FB, Twitter,
Google and Linkedin open
gates to specific “news”
and media consumption
that is scattered over the
web.
!
News consumption -less
abundant here- is way
higher on mobile

7. Given the foregoing…
What TYPE of Media do I consume in 1 week on a desktop computer?

8. Github (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

9. Github+Twitter (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

10. Github+Twitter+Google (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

11. Github+Twitter+Google+Flickr+Translate (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

12. Github+Twitter+Google+Flickr+Translate+Docs (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

13. Github+Twitter+Google+Flickr+Translate+Docs+Drive+Netflix (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

14. Github+Twitter+Google+Flickr+Translate+Docs+Drive+Netflix+Gmail (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

15. Github+Twitter+Google+Flickr+Translate+Docs+Drive+Netflix+Gmail+Yelp (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

16. Github+Twitter+Google+Flickr+Translate+Docs+Drive+Netflix+Gmail+Yelp+YouTube+Wikipedia+Linkedin+Reddit+Instagram+Airbnb
+NewsWebsites (february 2 / february 10, 2015)

17. Given the foregoing…
How MANY TIMES do I consume types of Media in 1 week on a
desktop computer?

18. Map of Media consumption/generation by times I enter a website in 1 week (bigger means more times)

19. How is my Media consumption/generation connected? Search: Poderopedia. Red color shows mentions of “Poderopedia”

20. How is my Media consumption/generation connected? Search: Nieman. Red color shows mentions of “Nieman”

21. Media diet
A week of browser history visualized
!
MAS 700 – Future of News and Participatory Media - 2015 Spring - MIT Medialab
!
@miguelpaz