What I Read

When I first wake up in the morning I grab my iPhone which has so conveniently been placed to charge by my bedside.  I check my two email accounts, one personal and one mostly school related.  Before I get out of bed, I open my Facebook and Twitter apps and scroll for about ten minutes to catch myself up with universal news events and not so universal friend and family events.

When I am finally up, showered, and sort of dressed, I eat my bowl of cereal and have my first cup of coffee with my laptop open.  I read through the headlines and click through to any stories that particularly grab my interest on the New York Times, my homepage.  I will often check Facebook again before I leave for the day just in case some monumental event hits my News Feed or some last-minute notification pops up about my status update.  Rarely but on occasion I will have extra time to kill in the morning.  It’s then that I check my Tumblr for updates and endlessly scroll through the myriad of photos and thoughts that invade my dashboard.  I post and reblog as often as I can but I often just find myself looking, reading, and clicking.  Sometimes if I am satisfied with the news and Facebook I will close my laptop and read from a magazine whilst finishing up my coffee (or starting my second cup).

I have two piles of magazines sitting in my room, each the size of a well-stocked encyclopedia.  The first pile is Vogue, the second New York magazine.  I love both subscriptions dearly but simply cannot keep up with them and complete an issue in a timely manner.  Through time I have noticed two particular problems associated with these subscriptions.  The main issue is that New York magazine comes on a weekly basis.  If both Vogue and New York came on a monthly basis, my piles would most certainly shrink in size.

My second problem is that I am a complete and thorough reader when it comes to magazines.  I pour over every article and column, and inspect every photograph and advertisement from the cover to the last page.  I have proceeded in this manner ever since I can remember.  For some reason, I have a special affinity for magazines and refuse to skim them the way I do online news articles.  As wonderful as this reading process may seem, it has caused me many months of  untimely reading.  However, I made a successful dent in my piles this summer and am proud to report that I am now caught up to the March 2012 issues of both Vogue and New York magazine.

In terms of my media diet for the rest of a regular day, I am usually swamped with articles and readings for school.  However, I check Facebook and Twitter on my iPhone sporadically throughout the day, getting a daily fix of world news, pop culture, and local gossip.  If at the end of the day I am not too busy with schoolwork or an airing of one of my favorite TV shows (ie: Game Of Thrones, New Girl, True Blood, and the list goes on), I enjoy reading through a round of blogs.

Two of my most go-to online publications are Feministing and Jezebel, both liberal and often humorous, feminist blogs.  Since I follow both on Twitter I am often linked to their news stories and daily musings from my Twitter feed.

I also follow a round of music and media-related sites including Stereogum, Pitchfork, Abeano, and Gorilla vs. Bear.  A few fashion blogs also enter my realm of online media digestion.  One of my favorites is a street style account from photographer Scott Schuman called The Sartorialist, a “two-way dialogue” about the fashion world and it’s relationship to daily life.  Everything else I voraciously consume on the internet comes from a host of sites and blogs on culture and various news events, that I subsequently follow on Twitter.  These include but are not limited to The New Inquiry (“a space for discussion that aspires to enrich cultural and public life by putting all available resources toward the promotion and exploration of ideas”), Flavorwire (“Cultural news and critique – If it’s compelling, we’re sharing it”), The Hairpin (“A low-key cocktail party among select female friends”), Thought Catalog (“A place for relevant and relatable writing”), and Gawker (“Today’s gossip is tomorrow’s news.”)

I think it’s safe to say that I am very attached to media in all of its forms but especially in its online format.  Without the internet, I don’t think I would feel as complete a person as I do today.

I may in fact be lost without it.

Although I used to find this realization shocking and disheartening, I have recently come to appreciate all that the internet bestows upon me.  It’s not only a useful tool for gathering news and pertinent information, but it is also a huge contributor to how I make sense of the world and how I form opinions.  What I consume online quenches my thirst for knowledge and satisfies my hunger to learn.  It inspires me to continue consuming and motivates me to continue producing.