INTRODUCTION
Through the summary of my everyday life over the course of the last 7 days, I have revealed a lot about myself. Through the methods of transportation I use, to my level of hygiene, to my family and even where I place priorities on my daily routines that I find typical and mundane. This analysis shows how structured my day has to be in order to accomplish what I label as my responsibilities from the moment I wake up, until the moment I fall asleep every night. By demonstrating the tasks that I do daily and my level of interest in them as mundane, this displays my behavior in the way I keep myself and my processions (my clothes, pets, etc.) as well as how I maintain social expectations around where I live and how I traverse through society (both literally and hypothetically). Without further ado, here is my everyday life analysis. Enjoy!
Day 1: Riding the UMD Bus to School
The bus is my primary method for traveling to the University’s campus as an undergraduate student. There are a high quantity of space on the vehicle where a majority of the seats face forward in the direction of the travel. Here passengers, in the form of students and faculty all rely on the maintenance of the overall vehicle as well as the schedule that the bus keeps in order to plan out their morning to arrive to the University for their first scheduled task. Here, there is a power structure in which the passengers must discover their closest bus stop, plan their time in order to arrive at this local prior to the arrival of the bus where ultimately the driver and the institution of UMD DOTS control whether or not they will pick these students up. Frequent passengers must plan their days entirely around this mode of transportation which determines what time to wake up as well as what time you will arrive home. There is also an infrastructure present within the bus system with the construction of stop stops, the technology to track the buses via mobile devices through programs such as ‘NextBus’, as well as the vehicle itself.
Day 2: Doing Laundry
Part of our culture includes the regular maintenance of clothes in the form of washing, drying, folding and neatly placing them away. It is generally socially unacceptable for people to wear dirty clothes or to wear the same outfit everyday. For this reason, people must own a collection of clothing and regularly wash them. This process varies across households in various socioeconomic statuses in the country, however the resources are generally the same. In order to participate in the socially accepted, and encouraged, activity people must have access to utilities such as water and heat as well as products such as washing detergent.
Day 3: Cleaning the Liter Box
One of the abilities people have is the chance to own for an animal where we label these creatures as pets which are simultaneous labeled as ‘members of the family.’ In a culture that generally enforces legislation towards animal rights as well as expects a certain level of cleanliness to be socially acceptable, this requires a certain level of ‘care’ for these creatures. In the form of cats, this means that the location in which this pet urinates and defecates must be regularly up-kept where the forms of bodily waste must be scooped out and relocated to the trash or to a socially acceptable location. In this examination we find a certain culture revolving around bodily wastes and the conversation it plays in residences and social order.
Day 4: Walking to Class
In order to transport myself from one location to another around campus, I must walk from class to class. In walking around the university, as well as most suburban and urban areas, there are clearly defined locations for different modes of traffic. Traffic can be in the form of pedestrians, which are socially expected to walk on concrete areas on either side of the vehicle transport lanes, typically constructed out of asphalt. Similar to the way automobile traffic moves on the asphalt roads, pedestrians typically also travel on the right side of these concrete lanes going in both directions. Unlike vehicle roads, pedestrian sidewalks allow more freedom to deviate from this rule and allow users to move about freely and transport themselves in a more direct path to their destinations whereas vehicles are expected to remain in their lanes and to never deviate from these rules in fear of legislative prosecution.
Day 5: Making Oatmeal for Breakfast
Our culture expects us as citizens to consume around 3 meals a day. In this theory of bodily health, there is an emphasis on consuming a healthy breakfast to start your day. The majority of these types of meals are heavy in carbohydrates and require very little cooking skills in order to create a meal. Generally this comes in the form of grain or oats mixed with milk or water. There is a trend of “quick” breakfast meals among popular options in the theory that people are rushed to get ready in the mornings. This is most likely due to people favoring sleep as part of their schedule. The ability to participate in the task of eating breakfast still requires one to schedule the start of their days in order to have time to consume a first meal.
Day 6: Shoveling the Snow from the Sidewalk
During the winter months, it is common for this area to experience snow fall. As part of functioning close to a “typical” day, there are services created throughout these areas to relocate the fallen snow away from roads and sidewalks. Here there is a set of value placed on these lanes of transport as more worth of maintenance and safety apart from grassy or other areas. People who live in homes that also have public sidewalks and walkways are expected to shovel and keep these areas clear for pedestrian transportation while the roads where vehicles travel are expected to be maintained by the local government. When snowfall is severe enough that this practice of relocating the snow cannot be done quickly enough to ensure safe lanes of transportation, certain jobs and other public services such as public schooling, are temporarily closed.
Day 7: Doing Homework for Class
Part of our educational system requires students to complete tasks at home that directly relate to their current study that is labeled as homework. While the classes generally require students to obtain readings through the purchase of physical textbooks, a majority of this homework is conducted on the internet. Here there is a certain level of expectation for students to either own technology that gives them access to the internet in order to complete these assignments or to manage their time accordingly to use public libraries with access to the internet. Students are required to interface with this medium of information diffusion and become comfortably acquainted with it in order to correctly complete these assigned tasks. Giving homage to older methods of homework, these tasks are still required to be turned in (now more so “submitted” virtually) on time. Regardless, technology has been given a larger role in education and becoming a norm especially in higher education.
Digital Media and Everyday Life 