Blog #3

My Day Looking at a Screen

I woke up at 7 am to my phone alarm ringing, so this makes me immediately reach for the device and raise it up to my face. I hit cancel and then close out of the alarm app. I then rolled back in bed and opened up the twitter app. I scrolled through my timeline for about five minutes, until I was interrupted by seeing my own face on the phone screen due to the fact that I was receiving a Facetime call from my boyfriend. We talked on Facetime from about 7:05 to 7:55, while we talked I honestly just laid in bed the whole time watching him get ready for work. At 7:56 I decided to put my phone back on the charger and I got up to go take a shower. Between 7:56 and 8:20, I did not have any screen time because I was taking a shower and cleaning up my bathroom. I then went to go pick out what I was going to wear, but realized I did not know what the weather was going to be like for that day.

So I went back to my phone at 8:22 and opened up “The Weather Channel” app. I probably spent about 30 seconds on that app and then noticed that I had two notifications on my imessage app. From 8:23 to 8:25 I texted back my mother and also texted my friend Janise asking if she was going to be on campus that day, and what time she was going to be on campus.



Often times, I open up my phone to do something and then a few moments later I realize that I have opened up one of the Social media platforms. There is no certain one I open up, but it is almost like a habit that I end up opening up a social media platform every time I open up my phone to do something. Even if the thing I am trying to accomplish has nothing to do with any of the social media platforms, I somehow end up on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook. So at about 8:30 I then came to the realization that I had somehow ended up on Instagram and have spent about five minutes of my time to get ready looking at the sad updates of everyones real life on their finsta posts. For instances, here is my friend Josie describing all the bad things that has happened in her day.
I then remembered that I completely forgot what the weather was going to be like for that day, so I reopened The Weather Channel app, and checked again. I quickly put my phone down on my bedside table and went into my bathroom to finish getting ready. From 8:31 to about 8:40 I was simply in my bathroom looking at myself in the mirror, and also in my closet looking for something to wear.

 I did not have any screen time in between these times, but at around 8:40 I turned on the TV in my room, and Apple TV opened up. I changed the input to be able to show the Verizon cable box, and made sure it was on channel 260, which is Disney Junior, so my puppy, who stays in my room every hour that I am not home able to be home with her, is not sitting in silence all day (even though she probably does not even notice the TV is on, I just know that I would not enjoy sitting in silence all day) . This only took about a min to do. At about 8:41, I made my bed and then made sure nothing was on my floor that my baby girl puppy would be able to destroy (will indeed be paying full price for a textbook that I have rented this semester, unfortunately it was not the COMM textbook that Dr. Bernabo dislikes very much).

At 8:47 I picked up my phone and disconnected it from the charger, and when I did this, my phone screen lit up and I noticed that I had a missed facetime call from my boyfriend at 8:42. I quickly tapped it and let it ring for about 30 seconds until I realized that he was not going to answer, due to the fact that he started work at 8:45 and was not able to. But every morning we always do a facetime call when we first get up, and one right before he is about to go into work since we are only able to talk on his breaks, and sometimes I am in class on his breaks, so every chance we get we try too facetime. After I hung up the facetime, I opened up my Imessage and texted him telling him to have a great day, and apologizing for missing his facetime call because I was making my bed. I then looked at the time and it was 8:47. I put my phone in my back pocket, and did everything I had to do before I left for class.

At 9:00 I got in my car and the first thing I did was open up Apple music on my phone. I scrolled through the different playlists that I have and chose one depending on my mood. I put my phone on my car charger and drove to class. I did not touch my phone while driving this day due to the fact that I knew I was documenting my screen time for this blog and did not want to make it seem like it is a usual thing for me to get on my phone while I am driving a car. When I got to campus it was 9:15, and I sat in my car on my phone looking at Twitter until it was 9:20. I did not have any screen time until it was 9:30, because I opened up my laptop for class, and stayed looking at my laptop until 10:45.

I did not look at my phone until I got in the car. At about 10:55 I was looking at Apple music once again to choose another playlist. I did not touch my phone again until I got home at about 11:15. I called my mom to let her know that I was planning on taking a long nap so she would not wake me up. I then texted my boyfriend to let him know that I was taking a nap, but that he could still call me when he gets on his break at 12. At 11:25 I put my phone on the charger and turned on my Apple TV to watch Disney+. I immediately chose Proud Family because I can always fall asleep quickly watching that. I watched it for about 10 minutes and then at 11:35 I rolled over so I was not able to look at the screen any longer. At 12 I was awoken by a Facetime call from my boyfriend, so I picked up the phone and we talked for about 5 minutes. After we got off the phone, I decided to do some homework.

From about 12:05 to 2 I was on my computer using CNU scholar and an application called brackets to do my computer science homework. From 2:00 to 2:10 I opened up instagram on my phone, and watched Instagram stories. I did not get back on my phone until it was about 2:20 when I was in my car looking at Apple Music. I put my phone down, and drove back to campus. This time I did not sit in my car on my phone because there was a little traffic, and I got the 10 minutes until class started. From 3 to 4:30 I did not have any screen time. At 4:31 I got a call from my boyfriend and we Facetimed until about 5. By then I was already home and decided to do some reading for my classes on my computer. I opened up CNU scholar and read on my computer while taking notes on Google doc from 5:15 to 7:00. I did not look at another screen until 8:30 and this was to once again facetime my boyfriend. We talked until about 10, and then we decided to go to bed. I turned on Disney+ again and watched Proud Family while also being on Twitter. At 10:20 I put my phone down, and watched Proud Family until I fell asleep.

Keeping track of how I use my time on technology is very boring and easy to forget. I did not realize how much of my time I use looking at a screen whether it is for entertainment or not. I think I am going to start reading books more.