The Way iConsume Media March 5, 2007
Posted by Mario Sundar in Miscellaneous.Tags: cnet, google-reader, jeremiah-owyang, Miscellaneous, social-media, twitter
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Well, I thought I’d escaped the “media consumption diet” meme that my friend Jeremiah had started a while ago. However, I was inadvertently tagged while having dinner with him, Damon and friends earlier today 
So here goes buddy… Let’s see how we compare:
Web: Yes, as you may have expected the Web is my main line of input/output communication with the rest of the world. I can’t live without (a) TechMeme and (b) Google Reader. I’m addicted to TechMeme, since it provides me with up-to-date, to the minute, tech conversations that interest me. To me, TechMeme’s the evolution of CNET. As for Google Reader, I have two accounts that I access, one purely for tech based feeds (112 feed subscriptions) and the other encompassing all my other interests – photography, movies, politics and daily news (20 feeds).
Music: I stumble upon most of my music via an audio blog aggregator – Hype Machine, which picks music from a bunch of audio blogs and aggregates them by popularity. Apart from that, I’ve tried Pandora and am intrigued by Last.fm for its social networking skills, but haven’t tried it enough to convert. However, I hope I can shift to iTunes completely, once I make that iPod purchase that’s LONG overdue.
TV: I’m a HUGE fan of Jon Stewart and am happy consuming clips from his show via YouTube or nowadays via Comedy Central’s website. I don’t have cable nor TiVo, but I find I can access most of the hit shows online. However, the same can’t be said of HBO. I don’t have TiVo either but I see myself turning to AppleTV once I get that pending purchase of my Mac laptop and the iPod!
Communication: I love gmail and can’t evangelize it enough. I plan on trying out Steve Rubel’s recommendations to make Gmail your nerve center, and have even tried incorporating my favorite “Getting things done” productivity application via Gmail! Jeremiah piqued my curiosity on Twitter and though I can’t clearly see the benefits right now, I’ve decided to give it a shot. Atleast, the sfquake feed he suggested would come in handy
Movies: If you haven’t guessed by now — I’m a huge movie buff, and I use (a) Netflix for my movie consumption — I receive the latest list of DVDs released via RSS and (b) Flixster for my movie social networking needs. I do catch movies in theaters with a group of fellow movie buffs, every once in a while, and down the road I plan on using Flixster to schedule movie screenings with my movie network (currently 22 on my Flixster network).
Newspaper/Magazines: I don’t subscribe to any tech magazine in print. I however, do access Business Week, NYT Tech, Wired, Time, WSJ Tech via RSS.
Books: I love reading books but don’t get time for more than 4 or 5 a year. Predominantly, business related – Jack Welch’s Winning, The World is Flat, and on rare occasions — books like “Guns, Germs, and Steel”
I’d love to know more about my fellow marketing bloggers media consumption diet. Any takers? Mack, Ann, CK, Paul, Michael. Feel free to share.
What about You? Reading this blog. Leave a comment about your media consumption diet.
There’s no escaping the meme.
Thanks for sharing.
Looks like we have common media consumption traits, J, except for the movie part
Happy to share.
I was subscribed to too many feeds, being the info junkie I am. Then I killed 90% of them, and it felt great. I’m at around 25 now, mostly about marketing, graphic design, and writing.
So I began catching up with my mag subscriptions. For business, I read fast company and business 2.0. For design I have HOW, Dynamic Graphics, and ID.
For books, I read through popular marketing & business…but I also listen to a lot of audiobooks for the 50+ miles I bike per week. Biographies, Sociology, History, and Bill Bryson.
Not much TV, although I tune into Family Guy. Musicwise, I like Pandora although it’s not good at classical music (Last.fm generally is). Film, well it’s either the friends’ house or uTorrent.
In general, I try to stay on a balanced and fair diet of media while enjoying other aspects of life, while using the iPod in between.
Hi Mario a.k.a Mr. Vellandi
I totally agree with you – my 112 feeds + 20 feeds in two Google Reader accounts is the evolution of indiscriminately adding feeds (200) at one time and the price I paid for it!
Your picks are interesting: I should try out Bill Bryson and uTorrent.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Hiya Mario: I love that pic of you and me over in your sidebar! Good times, eh? For any of you reading that have not yet met Mario, he’s one of the coolest and smartest guys around. Do meetup with him when you’re in the Bay Area.
OK…insofar as media consumption. Well, I watch very little TV now (blogging has cut into that time) but I do make time for movies (both at the theatre and on-demand). Don’t really do the video store route at all. When I do watch TV, it’s many times through TiVo.
BUT I always make time for CNN. I’m a bit of a junkie there. Online I read CNN, NYT, USAToday, some of the trade pubs and many of the marketing blogs.
And zilch radio. I download all my songs from iTunes…songs I usually get wind of either being out or from TV shows.
Incredible how much “passive media” time (radio/TV) has become “active media” time (blogs). So much more advancing
.
Thanks, CK, for your kind words.
I hope we get a chance to meet either in San Francisco or New York, sometime later this year.
Since you watch movies, I should send a Flixster invite to you. Feel free to ignore it, if you’re not interested.
Mario-
Oh, man, my media consumption has be flipped around all over the place over the past couple years.
Web- I use google reader for almost everything. Just about every site/blog I follow gets filtered through this.
Music- Generally, there’s a few blogs from which I find new music, mainly gorilla vs. bear. I just found hype machine, too. Plus, there’s Itunes recommendations, and then the grandaddy of them all, myspace. I always check their music page. Plus, if I hear about a band elsewhere, I’ll check ‘em out on myspace, then click through the bands on their friends list, as well. I actually buy 95% of my music through Itunes.
TV- I still watch the daily show and colbert report religiously, but always recorded, and usually not until a couple hours if it airs. I never, ever watch commercials anymore. Most I do watch, I see online.
Communication- I use gmail mostly, then some hotmail, and outlook for work. I also text message regularly, and I use aol instant messenger and google talk, as well. Occasionally, I also use skype.
Movies- I have an account with netflix, but I usually rent movies and never watch them.
Newspapers- What is that? Actually, I used to get the Dallas Morning News every single day. Then, about a year ago, the dispenser outside my apartment broke. I’ve never looked back since. I still read online, some DMN, and the obligatory new york times.
Books- Mostly I just read marketing books, but blogs have pretty much ruined my attention span.
Anyway, nicely done, Mario. That was fun!
Oh, hell, I forgot about radio. I listen to the ticket, a sports radio station in Dallas, every morning while I’m getting ready, and on the way home in the afternoon.
Hey, Paul.
I noticed most bloggers have eschewed print for the most part. I understand we are early adopters but there definitely is a trend brewing.
Well, thanks to Jeremiah, I totally enjoyed creating this component on media consumption trends.
Thanks for contributing, Paul.