In my Media Ethics and Law class, we had to track all of our social media use for one week. That means everything. So if you open up Facebook and close it immediately you have to log it. Every time I read a news article, went on Snapchat, Twitter, or watched TV, I wrote it down.

This is what part of a day looked like for me:

2:26- 2:37 p.m. on Pinterest looking through "Star Wars," "Stranger Things," and "Marvel" pictures and edits.

2:47 I am looking at an Entertainment Weekly article about Mark Salling, an actor who had been convicted of having child pornography, had killed himself.

2:48-2:51 p.m. I read a CNN article via twitter about Joe Kennedy who will deliver the Democrats SOTU response.

8:30 -10:34 p.m. State of the Union on MSNBC.

9:14-10:34 p.m. Live tweeting State Of The Union.

11:04- 11:50 p.m. We partook in the nightly ritual of watching "Supernatural."

11:07 p.m. I am looking up a gif from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood" Prince where Horace Slughorn is saying “these are mad times we live in. Mad!”

11:56 I am in bed watching "Friends" and doing a quick last minute scan of social media, sending Star Wars edits to my roommate Bridget.

For me, it was a really interesting assignment because it showed me how much useless time I was spending on apps and other media. But it also showed me that I consume more news than I originally thought. The project was, in a way, a self-reflection on how we spend our free time.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with spending time scrolling on Facebook or Instagram. I very much enjoy doing that after a long class and an even longer walk in the cold back to my room. Scrolling is fun and, often I find, mindless. For me at least, it’s all about finding a balance between reading actual news stories and other media.

I think knowing my professor was going to read the assignment helped me in doing more than just glancing at news stories. I spent more time, than usual, reading and following the news. I won’t lie, sometimes I am not the best at keeping up with the news. And, seeing that writing news is how I would like to spend the rest of my life I need to be better and less lazy. I think this project really put everything in perspective for me. Reading the headlines of six news stories isn’t going to do me much good but sitting down and actually taking the time to read two or three of them is far more worth it.

There is nothing wrong with scrolling on Pinterest or Instagram, I do it too. But if I want to be journalist or writer, being active in knowing the news is important. Honestly, it’s also important in being an informed citizen. It’s good for everyone to know what’s going on in the world and in your own country. So I’ll be here reading news stories and scrolling threw Pinterest, wondering how I connected so much with a class assignment.