Ries_Blog #3

Blog 3

I chose to do this ‘experiment’ on a Sunday so I could see what I was doing with minimal other pauses like class or meetings, etc. I think that does give way to automatically upping my numbers for social media time or television time, but it is still interesting to see how much time I spend on everything I do. For me, it was difficult to remember how often I had checked my phone or how long I had been on my computer when I was focusing on homework, but I know that my screen time is incredibly high on the weekends. I worked my Residence Life duty shift the night before, meaning I was on my phone until around 1:30 am, which slightly messes up my screen time recording on my phone. On Sunday mornings, I go to coffee shops to get off campus and to focus on my work. This particular morning, I had woken up around 8:30, turned off my alarms and checked through some of my social media for 10-15 minutes in between dozing. I checked Snapchat, Instagram and then my email to make sure I did not miss any notifications. After checking my social media and convincing myself to get up and be productive, I turned on my morning playlist of John Bellion and Khalid off Spotify and got ready for the day. During that time if I get a notification I stop and check it occasionally, but this time I didn’t have any while I was getting ready for the day, so I just had the music playing. Before leaving the house, I checked the address of the coffee shop I was going to, as I wanted to try a newer one and left for the shop!

My playlists are very consistently country or John Bellion,
and I love listening to music when I'm being productive!

On the drive over, my GPS is always my lifesaver as I am terrible with directions – but don’t worry, I made it. Arriving at the coffee shop, I set up all of my class materials and recognized pretty quickly that I would need to be on both my laptop and have music playing because Sunday’s at this shop is ‘kids story morning.’ While I work, I put my phone in my backpack to remind myself not to check it, but I have my email up on my laptop to check occasionally. My laptop screen time began at about 10 am. In between my work, I occasionally would check for notifications or take a quick break to scroll through social media. Despite my commitment to trying out new coffee shop, kid’s day was very distracting and had me checking my phone more than I typically would when I am able to focus more. When I had questions about my work, I also turned to texting or Snapchat-ting to ask friends about assignments which added to my time on my phone. Despite the initial work-based checking, it normally turned into a scroll or two through Instagram or Facebook. Once I had finished my first draft of my big assignment, I got antsy and decided to head back to campus for lunch (mostly because it’s free). 

My breakfast and focus juice for getting work done on my screens!

Using my GPS to get back on campus took about 15 minutes of ‘screen time’ but lunch was in a to-go box, so I did not really check my phone during that time. I headed back to my room to watch a show while eating. HGTV was a good option, so that was roughly 45 minutes of screen time, interspersed with occasional checks of my phone during commercials once I was done eating. I got back to work soon after that, making sure to plug in my phone away from my desk so I was not as tempted to look again. There was still laptop screen time, as most of my work is essays at this point in my college career. I checked my email and calendar once or twice while working but stayed more focus without the distraction of new coffee drinks and children. I worked for about 2 more hours, putting me at 3:30 pm. I decided to take a quick nap because I was on duty again that night – I don’t do well at the desk without a nap during the day. This still involved the use of my phone as I set a nap-timer for myself.

Fixer Upper is my favorite HGTV show! I've even been to
Waco, TX to see their store and homes!

Come 4:30 pm I have napped, gotten up, and checked my Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat prior to getting myself ready for Chapter with my sorority. That typically just involves making myself presentable for the outside world again, but with more phone checking and music playing – this time, it was my Dan & Shay radio on Spotify. I walked over to Chapter, which has a lot less phone interaction because there are so many people to talk to! The slides for Chapter are presented on our flatscreen in the Mansion, so that would count as screen time too, I would think. On Sunday’s, my Family Line all go to dinner together to catch up from the week, which also means a lot less phone time. We all try to stay off our phones for the most part, unless we have to show them a video or funny picture from the week to embellish our stories. With the end of dinner, this means I have an hour to relax or get some more work done. For that day, I mixed the two – watching a Great British Baking Show while working through a summary paper for my Media Audiences class. Around 8:45 I have to get changed and mentally prepped for my duty shift, but Sunday’s are pretty quiet, so this is less intimidating that Friday or Saturday nights. At the desk, most of the RAs tend to either spend time on their phone, working on homework, or watching a show while we check people into the building. I continued my previous habit of watching a show while working on my summary with a split screen on my laptop. We also have to use a desktop to check people in, so with my phone I had three screens going for a majority of the time at the desk. Once duty is over around 12:45 am, I went to my room and relaxed by listening to a Soft Pop Hits playlist on Spotify and laid out clothes for my 7:30 am gym class.

This is my screen recording for my phone use during the day.

 I ended it around 9 pm

My screen use is high on the weekends, but I also felt more ‘watched’ than normal because I was recording my actions – this just that there was guilt or hesitation when I picked up my phone but did not really curtail my habit as much as I thought it would. Part of me sees the “uses and gratifications” approach in my use – I know what to expect and I’m using my screens for specific purposes: computer for “information seeking” and “convenience utility”, television for “relaxation” or “pass[ing] time”, phone for “social interaction” and “communicatory utility”, etc (Whiting, 2013, p. 364). All those uses and gratification outcomes are mentioned in the reading by Whiting and Williams (2013). In this way, I am fitting into the understanding of the purposeful consumer outreaches mentioned in the piece. 

When picking between the two prompts, I knew I had to record my screen time, rather than giving it up for 24 hours due to the amount of anxiety I know that would cause me. My problem would have been the inability to work on homework, or to check my email where I have Resident emails or messaging from hopeful employers or current employers. I do believe we have a general understanding in the Residence Life staff that our phones are almost always available in case of emergency procedures which I think has impacted my dependency on my phone. Prior to college I definitely did not have the same need for checking it, and I do wonder what deleting social media would do to those habits. Screen time would be different, because of work or relaxing through television, so I do think that would be much more difficult to curtail. Overall, the guilt I felt when checking made me think twice about picking my phone up but did nothing to stop my other screen use because it is so ingrained in my daily schedule.

Phone use is good to recognize, but screens was
difficult to analyse all at once 

Reference:

Whiting, A., & Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: A uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), 362–369. doi: 10.1108/qmr-06-2013-0041