Media consumption logging

I like watching movies, listening to music, reading books and playing videogames. Personally, if I don’t stop and think about what I consumed, I will forget it in a heartbeat and move onto more exciting ventures. This reflection is necessary if I don’t want large swathes of my free time being consumed by the entertainment Ouroboros and forgotten.

I force myself to reflect by logging and noting what media I consume. There are several reasons as to why you would want to log your media consumption:

• Memory: By jotting down some thoughts relating to the media, you force yourself to recall the content which will allow you to remember it more easily in the future. This is true, even if you are just rating the media amongst other articles, as repeat exposure to the title, the poster, whatever, strengthens the memory of the media.
• Reflection: Recalling consumed media gives your brain time to think and reflect further on the material.
• Patterns: Analysing your logs allows you to find a pattern of your preferences or consumed content. This way, you can more easily determine what sort of content you enjoy, and what you should give a second chance.
• Goals: You can use the log to attain personal goals such as books read per year or for exploring new genres. You can also just use it for bragging ;)
• Sharing: You can use your logs as a resource to recommend media to others. If I were to recommend a friend some albums related to Rjd2’s Deadringer I would not immediately say The Richest Man in Babylon or Mezzanine, but they somehow just fit as I look through my log of music albums.

Logging media consumption can, for some, be an intrusion on enjoyment and feel like a chore, especially since it can be very time-consuming. For some, it may even add a sort of pressure or guilt to keep up the log. You have to remember, however, that the log can be entirely private. I log the movies I watch and I rate them, but I never post a written review - at least online. I keep that for my personal notes. This form of logging is perfectly valid, as media consumption logging is as much as you make it.

How do I do it?

If you do not intend to publish your log, pen and paper or a note-taking program will do just fine. As expected, a ton of tools are available for logging every type of media consumption, and they augment your logs with the right covers, posters etc. These logging sites often have a social aspect to them too, but I always ignore it, as logging is only for my personal reflection. Here are a list of logging services I’ve used.

• Movies: Letterboxd has every movie I have ever watched in their database, and you can easily add new movies to your log, give them a rating and leave a review if you like (I never do).
• Books: Goodreads started back in 2006 and has a huge community, reading challenges, recommendations and a lot more. It is perfectly capable of acting as just a log for your read books though.
• Music: Rate Your Music started even earlier, in 2000, and also has an enormous, and at times very elitist, community. It is a bit more difficult to navigate than the others, but features user lists which are a godsend for discovery.
• Games: Infinite Backlog imports your games from your profiles (Steam, Epic, etc), tracks your achievements and allows you to input a lot of info besides a rating.

And it goes beyond media really! Of course you know of hotel and restaurant reviews, but let me present:

• Beer: Untappd allows you to find pretty much any beer and give it a rating while reading detailed information on type, brewery and so forth.
• Wine: Vivino and Cellartracker is the same, but for wine. I am not a huge wine person, so I haven’t used any of these.

I do actually use most of these, but I never stress about it. If I miss something, so be it. Another issue you may run into when logging, is your opinion changing. This happens often for me, and if I notice a log with a rating that doesn’t suit my taste, I will change it. For inspiration you can look at my most active log, my music log at Rate Your Music.

The logging services obviously have an interest in collecting the user data which you are effectively handing them, and this may be sold or leaked some day. Still, I use these services as they provide great features in return. Such a weighing must be made by any concerned internet user. While searching for greener pastures I found lib.reviews and open-source non-profit platform for reviewing anything, but it seems quite barebones and primarily centers around reviewing - something I’ve done very little of. Therefore, if I ever was to make my logging public outside the services presented here, it would likely be on this site.