My Digital Self

As I think about my online news consumption, I find that I consume a variety of different news. I often find myself consuming national news such as natural disasters, or events happening in our nation’s government and politics. One form of media that I enjoy consuming regularly is sports news, I am a big sports fan so I keep up with player stats and how teams are progressing throughout the season. When I hear about news I usually get it from social media, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. In today’s world, it is so easy to go on your phone and scroll for news. Having the world in your pocket seems to be so convenient that it becomes simple to consume media and news wherever and whenever you want. Because of the recent election, I found myself following different news accounts and people who would talk about politics, this way it was easier to educate myself on the different policies and what each candidate stood for. Although that sounds simple and most people would do that, I found that following pages that you are interested in will help your algorithm of things you will see on social media. Other than social media I do find myself using Google to look things up. If there is a story that I haven’t heard about yet but my friends are talking about it, I will just go online and look it up myself. I think that Google is a great place to get news, it will bring up multiple stories from different news sources and you can determine which one you want to listen to. There is a feature on Google called Google Ai that will summarize news stories or answers that you might look up. Although it can be very convenient if you are short on time, I do not like to use that Ai feature because sometimes it can be inaccurate. If I am looking for news I want it to be real and accurate. With more information coming out about Ai I think in the future it will be more reliable and accurate but for now, I like to read news from the source so I know what I’m reading is real. When consuming media I do it through different ways as well. I often like to watch videos because I like to connect words to pictures and images. I also like to see graphics when there are numbers involved as it will help me visualize. Using social media leads me to news sources all the time, I will see it from a news organization or see a story and want to know more then Google it. I do not use X or Bluesky, I know people who use these platforms to get news but I personally never have had the apps. I do listen to a couple of podcasts, mostly sports like Bill Simmons, Pat McAfee, and others when I’m driving or putting it on for background noise. When I read stories online I make sure they are reliable and accurate by trying to find that same story from other news channels and see if the information lines up. I cannot recall a time when I read a story and then found it to be fake later.