Phone Diary: Ciani Woods

This assignment to me seemed like it would be a piece of cake because I use my phone often during the course of the day, but I was very wrong. We do not often think about how many times we are actually picking up our phones and getting on social media or just making a simple phone call but we do it very often. Today, we are almost dependent on technology for communication, and just our everyday whereabouts. So as I stated, doing this assignment was difficult but it gave me insight on how dependent I am on my phone. I found myself sometimes forgetting to write stuff down when I used my phone or just feeling overwhelmed at the fact that I thought I could not keep up. I do not think I did that bad with my phone use and it was fun to try out. I even got weird stares from students who saw my mini notebook with all of my information in it but of course, they did not understand unless they were COM students. I carried my mini notebook like it was a newborn puppy because I knew how much I looked at my phone so my experience overall was different to say the least.
Now for quantitative information, in total I used my phone 44 times which I did not think was a lot but I considered the number of days that we had to record, which was only 48 hours. I used my phone for six hours and 33 minutes, with a lot of the time being on social media. I only had 16 textual interactions, but 25 social interactivities; that was not surprising at all. Many of my textual activities involved just texting my friends back or chatting in the “group me” with my friends but my social interactivities included talking to friends on Twitter, playing with music apps, posting on Instagram, Youtube vlogs, and Uber. Twitter is my favorite app so I was on there around 10 times, I texted people back or made phone calls around 16 times and it seems like I enjoy texting and talking on the phone while watching television or walking to class which is probably not good to do all of the time. Other times that I was using my phone, I was in conversations with friends which probably does not seem like it would be the most interesting conversation. Honestly the notebook and pen became my best friend during those 48 hours, like I mentioned before, it was different but a learning experience. This is not something that people do every day, using the notebook and pen followed by my phone is literally like using two forms of technology at the same time, pretty tricky. The notebook and pen were very specific and so was my smartphone, everything had to be written down in the book, so I had little wiggle room to miss a moment where I used my device but did not write it down. I learned that my phone is something that I depend on 24/7 without even really thinking about it, I felt like I used social media way too much and did not have real face to face conversations with the people around me. I feel that through time I have become digitally literate but I still have a long way to go. I take my smartphone with me everywhere I go so I have become very stuck to my phone, I use my apps basically just for a laugh or to connect with friends, not so much self-promotion. If I could do this assignment over again, I would be aware that I am glued to my phone but also try to be mindful and lower the number of times that my phone became my form of communication instead of just having a real conversation. Below is a few pictures of my notebook and my data that I have written down during those 48 hours

This assignment to me seemed like it would be a piece of cake because I use my phone often during the course of the day, but I was very wrong. We do not often think about how many times we are actually picking up our phones and getting on social media or just making a simple phone call but we do it very often. Today, we are almost dependent on technology for communication, and just our everyday whereabouts. So as I stated, doing this assignment was difficult but it gave me insight on how dependent I am on my phone. I found myself sometimes forgetting to write stuff down when I used my phone or just feeling overwhelmed at the fact that I thought I could not keep up. I do not think I did that bad with my phone use and it was fun to try out. I even got weird stares from students who saw my mini notebook with all of my information in it but of course, they did not understand unless they were COM students. I carried my mini notebook like it was a newborn puppy because I knew how much I looked at my phone so my experience overall was different to say the least.