On last report, there were several gazillion websites out there in the world. And, so goes conventional wisdom, most of us only look at less than a dozen of them on a daily basis.
I can confirm this from my own browsing habits. Pictured here is my Internet Explorer drop-down menu showing the websites I drop in on several times a day. If you kick in CNN and Canoe, and leave out sites I actually create, you’ve got 95% of my browsing life right there.
My television watching follows a similar pattern: about 40% NBC, 20% on ABC, 20% on TLC, 10% on CBC and the balance sprinkled over the dial.
I read the New Yorker every week, Yankee and Toronto Life every month and occasionally read WIRED and Mother Jones.
I pick up the Guardian once or twice a week (I read it online every day), the National Post about twice a month, and the Globe and Mail about once every two months.
I split my radio listening in the car between CBC and Magic 93, the later only because there’s nothing else I can pick up clearly. At home I never listen to “real” radio — it’s Grassy Hill 90% of the time, KPIG on Sunday afternoons, and various others the rest of the time.
In other words, in this crazy world of seemingly infinite choice, I have my tiny little unchanging sliver. And, I assume most people do too. What’s yours?
Comments
Interesting idea to consider one’s inventory of inputs. When I look at the list I have just jotted below of my common media choices, I think that I am innundated with opinion and that despite the variety on the web, I follow pattern that I have followed for most of my life — nova scotia, hockey, gardening, brewing, cooking, world news. Can I possibly receive much from each? Is this a bit like reading a fingerprint or more like tea leaves? Mags: Rural Delivery, Wired, Adbusters, New Yorker, Wallpaper, National Geographic, Canadian Geographic, Brew Your Own. Radio: CBC 106.7 FM (Halifax Information Morning via Mulgrave Transmitter); CBC 1070 am (Moncton Information Morning); CBC PEI FM (Afternoon Show — I miss Matt — and National broadcasts); 660 am The Fan New York (late night), 1030 am WBZ Boston (Brudnoy and Sullivan); 5975 sw BBC World Service. Bell EV TV: CBC Nfld/ Halifax/PEI/NB/Mont nightly news, PBS, Food Network, CBCNW, BBC World, CNN, BBC Canada, Fox (Red Sox games), Fox World Sports, TSN, CTVSN, TLC (really only for Junkyard Wars but that is important viewing); PEI Web Blogs Act, Kevo, here; Web/e-mail chats hbd.org, my alumni group, LLM groups, work related internals; papers: Northern Star, Nat. Post, Glob. Web sites: the brewery.org, BBC, CBC PEI (my last real link with provincial news but fading fast due to lack of depth and provincial government press release posting habits), Halifax Daily News, Canoe, London Sunday Times Restaurant reviewer A.A. Gill — best writer on the web, seasonally anything gardening; Web radio: BBC Scotland, WUNC NPR.
My morning routine upon arriving at work: I get my information fix with 15 minutes of web browsing on the follow sites (give or take a few — and not including sites I’ve built or helped build myself, which is where I spend a lot of my online time):<ul>
<li>News.com
<li>The Register
<li>Canoe
<li>CBC
<li>Slashdot
<li>Zeldman.com
<li>37signals: Signal vs. Noise
<li>Derek Powazek’s Weblog
<li>Scripting News
<li>Reinvented.net
<li>K10K.net (down until Dec 1st)
<li>Harrumph.com
<li>MetaFilter
</ul>
Forgot Kottke.org, another good weblog.
And, Acts of Volition is honoured to be at the top of Peter Rukavina’s Favourites list, even if it is ordered alphabetically.
Funnily enough, my morning routine echoes Steven’s routine. I check my email accounts, deleting 95% of the junk, and surf for 15 — 30 minutes for news, updates, and information in general — I am an info junkie. Then I’ll pop in to various sites throughout the day.
Favorite weblogs include:
<ul><li>notsosoft
<li>harrumph
<li>usr bin girl
<li>davezilla
<li>metafilter
<li>opine bovine</ul>
Reference sites include:
<ul><li>deja usenet
<li>google search engine
<li>a list apart
<li>tek-tips.com
<li>webmonkey
<li>php.net</ul>
At home I rarely watch TV — I went for almost 4 years without one. I like ‘West Wing’ and ‘Star Trek Enterprise’. Not a fan of radio anymore, though I grew up with CBC — I tend to listen to my own music, or prefer the quiet.
I go to, pretty much in this order, these sites a few times a day:
<ul>
<li>Reinvented</li>
<li>steve.rukavina.net (need to check in with the family first)</li>
<li>CBC Sports Online Hockey</li>
<li>ESPN.com</li>
<li>Officepools.com (gotta check where I’m at in the hockey pool)</li>
<li>Hershey Bears News (I’ve got a friend who plays for the Hershey Bears)</li>
<li>The New Yorker</li></ul>
When it comes to the TV, I really have no specific channel I watch. I like The Sopranos, watched all of Band of Brothers, and occasionally get sucked into some stupid reality show like Love Cruise.
I generally don’t read magazines or newspapers.
I usually listen to music I’ve downloaded from the web.
Actually, I do read magazines when I travel. A Movieline used to be perfect for the train trip from Kingston to Toronto, and one Vanity Fair usually takes care of the flight from Vancouver to Toronto.