24 Hour Screen Time - Blog #3

My 24 hour observation started at about noon on Tuesday, February 18th. My morning started earlier than that, but I did not start recording screen time until then. 

I started by trying to be productive and doing homework. I was unfortunately so focused on my homework that I forgot to keep track of the total amount of time that was spent doing homework, but I can tell you that from around 12:20 to 12:40 I took a quick Tik Tok break.

Prior to my Tik Tok break, I was interrupted by a phone call, so I was on the phone for about 15 minutes setting up a big girl job interview (a little humble brag for whoever reads this blog post, sorry but I am really excited). Once the phone call concluded, I quickly put the interview date and time into my calendar before I forgot. Then, with my computer still open and homework on the screen, I found myself scrolling through Pinterest planning my outfit and organizing my dream closet. I wish I could have repinned longer; but, I unfortunately had to get back to work. I was working on my senior seminar research paper. I finished writing a methods section, which if I am honest I had to reteach myself how to write a qualitative methods section. So, for about half an hour on my laptop I did lots of googling and researching before I decided to give up and make a recruitment flyer instead.

(P.S. if anyone would like to be a part of a focus group it would be really appreciated! Just shoot me an email - kennedy.johnson.17@cnu.edu, there will be free donuts!)

Once I struggled with that for a little, I realized I had not eaten lunch. So, while preparing a gourmet meal of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and half a bag of chips, I scrolled through a mixture of more Tik Tok, Instagram, and Pinterest. Once I finished lunch I took about a ten minute break from my phone, I quickly decided  I was bored and went straight back to mindless scrolling. I tried to come up with an insightful tweet for class, but found myself in a bottomless pit of the Tik Tok for you page from about 1:20 to 2:30. I then realized I still had some classes to go to, so I ran upstairs changed and went to class. My 3 o’clock class only ran until 4, during class I used my laptop to take notes and work on class assignments, with the occasional Kim Kardashian Hollywood game.

(This is what she looked like when I came to pick her up)

After class I stayed for about half an hour and work on homework with my partner, which was all done on my laptop in either google documents or canva working on our flyer some more. I then attended my next class from 4:30 to 5:30, which is the hardest for me to get through because we are not allowed to use technology. So, out of respect for my teacher I don’t even try to take notes on my laptop, I go old school and use a pen and paper; however, I do sneak a couple rounds of candy crush or Kim K. After class, I ate dinner; surprisingly, without looking at my phone! Then, from around 7 to 9:30 I watched Avengers: Infinity War, you know for the sake of project research. After I got a splitting migraine, no doubt from being on my phone all day, I decided to call it a night and hit the hay. I asked my google nest to set my alarm and play some peaceful ocean sounds. The following morning I had to take my grandmother, or Oba as I know her, to get some medication. She lives over in Portsmouth, so the only time I used my phone at 7 to gps my way to her house (yes yes, I know, I still don’t know how to get to her house from school). We had a lovely day of shopping where I got a new blouse and she took me to lunch and bought me some groceries, what a lovely lady. That pretty much took up most of my day, so the rest of the 24 hour observation was not spent on my phone which was kind of nice.

This entire 24 hours was very interesting to try and keep track of my screen time activity, I realized I spent a lot of time on Tik Tok. I think I am going to start looking at the screen time report I get every Sunday, and try to cut down on how much I use my phone and take some time to do other things! However, it is important to note that not all of my screen time is spent on my phone, when I attended class that we are not allowed  to use technology I struggle to get through it. Which has made me realize how dependent I am on my technology to help me get through the day.