In the 48 hours I was required to track my phone interactions for this assignment, I used my phone for 181 minutes and 33 seconds. This time was combined over the 35 uses I had with my phone. I had 6 textual interactions and 29 social interactions. For the content I was interacting with I had 8 times with social media, 15 times texting, 2 times setting my alarm clock, 3 times taking pictures, 1 time checking the weather, 2 times checking my health tracker and 1 time making a call.
Using two types of communication technologies at the same time was a little bit frustrating because I was integrating an older and slower method of communicating into the 21st century way of communicating and I felt it held me back. The more I thought about using the notebook and pen, the less I wanted to actually use my phone. This combination of two communication platforms would be thought of to make the process go faster, but in reality it discouraged me to use both. Also, it obviously didn’t feel natural to grab a pen and paper right after using my phone because I am just not used to doing that. It is almost scary that using a pen and paper can slow down the process of technology and make me not want to use my phone.
I learned that when using my phone, I tend to disrupt conversations with my friends that I should be participating in. In the moment I feel as though it is no big deal, but in retrospect I regret not being apart of those conversations. It is so sad that I don’t remember anything they were saying during that time, and to be honest I don’t even remember what I was looking at on my phone. Most people, after reflecting on their time spent on their phones, felt guilty and I did too but only for that. All the other interactions were to fill time and were spent talking with people from home that I really miss. To say that I regret talking to my Mom on the phone for an hour would be ridiculous because I cherish those conversations as much as I would in person.
Most of the apps I use (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.), I sometimes question why I use them at all because I feel like I am aimlessly just taking in information that I really don’t need. For instance, I don’t really care that my dance teacher is doing laundry this morning. But when I think about it, those are my main source for news in the world and I just need to filter out all of the other junk. It also doubles as my source of television, since I barely ever watch cable. So watching the pointless videos of pugs is my form of entertainment instead of sitting in front of the TV for hours.
Technology has its pros and cons, just like anything else in the world. You take out of it whatever you put into it. I learned that being conscious of my activity with my phone will help me appreciate technology more and become more aware of what I’m consuming and for how long. I love my phone and I don’t think it is a horrible thing that people want to become more connected with one another over technology. The only thing I do have to say though is that you must become connected with people in person before connecting with them via technology. I know now that technology helps you reflect on the moments you lived before, but in order to reflect on those moments you must live them first. 
