From midnight January 30, 2026, to midnight January 31, 2026, this had been my media consumption for the day. I decided to start with the start of the calendar day to the end of the calendar day to cover a complete 24 hours.
00:00-00:06
I was thinking of playing a little bit of the Saints Row (2022) reboot on PlayStation 5, but I quickly got tired and bored. All I wanted to really do was wind down and go to sleep.
00:06-09:22
I allow YouTube to play various space and natural history documentaries while I sleep. My Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD) makes it so that it is hard for me to sleep in silence. Science documentaries sometimes act as my lullaby to get me to sleep. I was awakened from my sleep by a phone call.
09:22-09:37
Watched various political shows on YouTube. When I wake up, I like to get my daily dose of news and information. I didn’t really have much time today; I only watched one video from the Meidas Touch before getting ready to groom.
09:37-10:39
I allowed more videos to play from the I’ve Had It Podcast and the Vanguard while getting ready to leave.
10:45-12:37
I ran a few errands with my cousin and listened to my new playlist on Spotify. This playlist is filled with protest anthems and songs against the establishment.
12:40-16:46
I had been sick with COVID this week and didn’t feel too well. I decided to go back to sleep(take a nap)and be rested before running more errands. I once again allowed documentary videos on YouTube about natural history to play on my TV while I slept.
16:57-19:48
Ran a few more errands. I played a couple of videos from YouTube, but had to stop them a number of times to have conversations with my children and my cousin, who were with me. The videos that I was playing were political, and the conversations were about politics and social justice.
17:06-17:27 (Overlap)
Checked my Facebook feed, but I was not as active today on social media as I usually am. I didn’t really feel like doing too much on social media.
20:00-21:32
I lay down and watched reruns of Sealab 2021 on the Adult Swim app on my computer.
21:32-23:23
Watched more political content on YouTube about the Epstein file drop that happened earlier in the day. I decided to post on Facebook about the file drop. I also went on X to see what some of my favorite media figures were saying about it.
23:23-23:40
Received a phone call from my fiancé on WhatsApp. She lives in a foreign country, and we talked until the call dropped due to a bad connection.
23:40-00:00
Played more documentaries to go to sleep. I didn’t really like staying up late.
This is not too atypical of a normal day for me, except for the fact that when I am at work, my day consists of more Spotify playlists than anything else. However, being sick made me very drowsy, so I slept most of the time.
My personal data was still out there for the world. YouTube knows what I like to watch while sleeping and/or napping. I don’t have to look for documentaries to watch. YouTube recommends them for me. Facebook gathers information about me every time I make a post or comment. WhatsApp can see what my fiancé and I send to each other. Cookies store information about what I’ve been doing on my computer.
YouTube knows that some of my interests are astronomy, paleontology, geology, politics, history, and other things. These are the things that I usually watch. Spotify knows that I am into nedrcore, neo-soul, and other genres. They will recommend certain artists to me. I am into a lot of left-wing political content and video essays. I don’t think there was much biometric data shared this day, if any, it did know some behavioral data from me.
Nothing was revealed about me that I didn’t want revealed about me in any of my media consumption for the day. If I posted on Facebook, it was what I wanted to be associated with my profile/page. However, information about my habits, which are VERY easy to predict, could be used by the algorithm to sell me products/services or lead me to other channels and users on social media. For example, I get advertisements from immigration services/lawyers for the purpose of obtaining a fiancé’s visa for the United States for my fiancé.
I try to be careful with my media use. I hide certain information about myself. I don’t post about my love life online. No one knows who I am dating and how serious it is. However, the algorithm knows because of my online activity on WhatsApp. I think as long as it is kept from my audience, I feel ok. But I do hate that my personal information is used to sell certain things to me.