This assignment brought to my attention how much we use our cell phones everyday. Technology is becoming a vital part of people’s lives today and the most usage comes from social interactions that serve no real purpose, such as Snapchat, Tumblr, or Vine. Additionally, people take using cell phones for granted, that “automatic reach” for your phone when you’re bored and not really knowing what you are going to do on your phone until you’re on it. I’m guilty of that “reach”, but I try to use every application on my phone for a beneficial use, not always just checking on Facebook what my relatives are doing on the weekend. Personally, I don’t use my phone 24/7 so this assignment wasn’t a nuisance to me, it was actually interesting and fun to log in to see what I exactly used my phone for and for how long. Though phone behavior for this assignment can be easily altered because you know you have to log in every time you use your phone, therefore you might not go to grab your phone as often as you normally would. I tried my best to avoid this and ignore that feeling, so I used my phone as I would without the assignment.
Here’s what it looked like…
A pocket sized notebook with a Pilot G-2 black pen.
Organized by: number, date, time, length of usage, whether it was a social or textual usage, the type of activity, and what did the usage interrupt.
Now, here are my interactivity statistics within 48 hours of the assignment…
- Total Interactions: 33
- Total Time Used: 143 minutes and 45 seconds (around 2 1/2 hours)
- Interactions…
- Snapchat (10 Times) 18 minutes Total
- Twitter (10 Times) 21 minutes Total
- Instagram (6 Times) 4 minutes Total
- Group Me (6 Times) 6 minutes 45 seconds Total
- Email (4 Times) 5 minutes 50 seconds Total
- Clash of Clans – Game (2 Times) 2 minutes 45 seconds Total
- Multiple App Interactions (4 Times) 57 minutes Total
- Texting (5 Times) 17 minutes 30 seconds Total
- Blackboard – School (1 Time) 2 minutes Total
- Weather – Check (1 Time) 1 minute Total
Most interactions took place during studying, homework, or doing nothing. For instance, if I was doing a homework assignment for a long period of time I would take a 5-10 minute break to just browse on my phone, which refreshed my thinking process to continue my work afterward. Other than that, I used my phone when I wasn’t doing anything, just to check into social media or my email.
The two types of interaction, mentioned before, are either a social or textual interaction. A social interaction might be sending a tweet, and a textual interaction might be emailing a professor. Out of my 33 total interactions, the amount of social to textual was nearly even which didn’t surprise me.
It was strange being forced to use these technologies, it made me think more about using my phone. Usually people take their cell phones for granted, but this assignment reminds us of how complex and important this technology really is. You have to get used to using the notebook and pen constantly, but once you’re used to logging in and remembering, it becomes a different experience, this is when I started to truly understand this assignment.
Also, I actually learned more about myself and my own technology. I realized that it takes effort and caring to beneficially utilize your technology, and not just going on social media. I learned that I should use my phone more often, especially for more serious uses. I knew before that I was more digitally literate than the average person, but this logging assignment showed me that I can keep improving.
As for my relationship with my phone, I learned it can be more professional. That I should be utilizing more phone more appropriately in order for myself to become more successful as a student and worker. Though, it made me appreciate my phone more, seeing all the uses it has and what a cell phone carries inside that a laptop might not have or use.
Furthermore, this assignment taught me how to better utilize my phone more than I previously did. It also showed my how others use their phone, which I found out that most people use their phones much more than I do. It was an overall interesting experience which I found both helpful and fun, despite the fact that I barely use my phone, maybe that’ll change now.