I was convinced to pay for YouTube Premium last year, so I tend to listen to the ad-free videos and documentaries throughout my day. Additionally, I like to leave videos on for my dogs when I leave the house, so streaming DogTV has been a great. Regarding social media applications, I tend to check Instagram and Facebook 3-5 times a day. Facebook keeps me in the loop with anniversaries and birthdays for friends and family, so it essentially performed calendar functions in a way. Instagram allows me to stay in touch with friends who are traveling and starting families all over the world.
Apart from the rare controversial post on Facebook, I don’t have negative feelings towards what I see online. In the past I have just blocked individuals and posts that I didn’t care to see. Rather than engaging in an online argument, I’d prefer to allow that person their opinion and keep mine to myself. Bearing that in mind, I get to curate the timeline I’m exposed to, which is why blocking and unfollowing is always the first option for me. I have had to unfollow family members in the past due to less than appropriate online behavior, but I consider that establishing a boundary. Sometimes you have to love people from a distance, especially when they are going out of their way to say rude things and rage bait online.
I personally don’t have a preference or satisfaction derived from one form of digital media over another. While audio-visual media is the most engaging, I generally don’t have time to sit and watch the screen most of the day. I tend to listen to audiobooks or YouTube Premium videos with the screen off. I don’t sit down often throughout the day, so walking around with headphones in while I complete tasks around the house is my default.
With regard to emails, I receive too many emails in my opinion. Internal addition to two work emails, I have two school emails, a military email, and two personal email inboxes. I truly dislike how quickly advertisement/spam emails populate, and how annoying it can be to individually unsubscribe from them. Every 2-3 months, I will take 30 minutes to delete spam and junk emails from my inboxes.
I have been added to several job boards for professionals with security clearances, so I receive weekly job listings as well as individual emails from recruiters. When I was looking for new opportunities, I appreciated the weekly emails but now that I’m situated in a great job, I will likely unsubscribe.
In the past 5 years, I have noticed the significant uptick in influencers selling items. It reminds me of old cable infomercials. While I tend to skip the ads, I have been slightly annoyed by the abrupt ad reads in law and crime content. Listening to a harrowing and sensitive details about victims of a crime juxtaposed with a Factor ad just feels gross.
