As much as I would love to spend a full day away from any type of screen, it kind of seems impossible in this day and age. Most of my classes this semester involve me looking at a screen in some type of way. I could not pull away from my phone because I knew I would catch a huge case of FOMO (fear of missing out). Also, I feared that I would miss important information that I knew my coach would send out regarding practices or upcoming games. So, I chose to monitor my screen time for 24 hours and do a proper break down of the amount of time I spend in front of a screen.I chose to monitor my screen time usage on a day that I had class and practice since that is usually a normal day for me. On Monday, February 24th, I woke up at 8:00 in the morning and turned off my alarm and immediately checked my phone. I was on my phone, mainly social media, for about ten minutes before beginning to get ready for class. When I wake up, I always go through my main social media apps starting with Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and of course, Twitter. As always, after I check my phone, I go back to sleep for about another ten minutes and wake back up to turn my second alarm off.
For my first class of the day at 9:00, I have to constantly stare at a computer screen for the entire 50 minutes because it is a computer science class. After class, I usually come back and take a nap and go to lunch before my next class at 12:00. In between that time, I checked my phone if I received a message but that is basically it because I am either sleeping or eating during that time. Also, my phone is usually dry so there is not much checking going on. My 12:00 class requires no technology, but I did occasionally Snapchat others or shoot a quick text. For about one hour after class, I was grinding out some homework, so I was consistently staring at my computer screen starting at 1:28 P.M. until about 2:30 P.M. while completing my math homework on Cengage. Once I finished my math homework, I headed to the locker room to begin getting ready for practice. We are not allowed to have our phones out during practice which means I went about three hours without looking at a screen. After practice, I spent two full hours sitting in front of the television because The Bachelor was on at 8:00 until 10:00. If you cannot tell from some of my tweets already, I am a huge fan of The Bachelor, and I never miss a Monday. As I am watching The Bachelor, I am also constantly scrolling through Twitter because the live tweets during the duration of the show are hilarious! So, that is basically double the screen time. Social media allows people to feel a social connection to everyone and allows people to participate in the circulation of new content (Fuchs, 2017). This is how I feel when I interact with people online when talking about The Bachelor or any other content. Finally, right before I go to bed, I go back to checking each of my social media accounts for about 20 minutes and set my alarm for the next day.
I only spent one hour and one minute on my phone that Monday which is ridiculously lower compared to most days. However, I added two extra hours because of my television show, which is not on every day, as well as two hours spent involving school work. That is about a total of five hours spent looking at a screen for one complete day. Out of the five hours I spent looking at screens, I spent an hour and 47 minutes of that time on social media. My phone usage mainly consisted of Snapchat which was 42 minutes and texting that consisted of 33 minutes. I was also on Twitter for 30 minutes which included me following funny bachelor comments and thinking about a tweet for the day. According to the recordings of my screen time through my settings on my phone, I received 276 notifications. Most of these notifications came from Snapchat, messages, and email. Also, check out that one Tinder notification. I am thriving.
After monitoring my screen time usage and comparing them to other days, it makes me want to lay off my phone more. Usually, when I am on my phone, it is because I need to relax from my hectic day. However, I need to start realizing that there are other ways to wind down. I know it can be hard to limit your amount of screen time, so I want to try taking the time I do spend in front of a screen and make it more productive. This could include me doing more schoolwork or applying for summer internships. Even though I think my screen time is bad, after comparing mine to some of my friends, I am doing considerably well!
References
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social media: A critical introduction. London: SAGE Publications. doi: 10.4135/9781446270066
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