Who would have thought that a mini composition book could have such an impact on someone’s conscious?
Obviously, we live in an age where phones and technology are a huge part of our lives, but this assignment brought light on a couple particular things about my phone usage itself. And I learned a lot about myself through that. Often times I was going on my phone just because walking without being on it was weird or I was recycling back through social medias the minute I finish going through them. For these cases, the more I wrote in my little book the more I became conscious of the unnecessary usage and I honestly found myself already using my phone less.
I had 37 total interactions reaching almost 5 hours. Majority of the time I was interrupting either sleeping or studying with those interactions. They were split between 12 textual interactivities, 6 social interactivities, 3 textual and social interactivities, and 16 calls. The breakdown went as follows:
Maps: 2
Check social medias and texts: 3
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: 4
Text: 12
Facetime or Call: 16
Highlighted are my calls which were my most common use
It was a hassle to think that every time I was on my phone I would have to record it. Sometimes it would even prevent me from using it. I was made more time conscious as the time on the phone and the extra time to record altogether were interrupting more important things. Like sleeping, studying, or paying attention to other. Another annoyance was surprisingly the specific notebook and pen usage. At one point, I thought about just using my phone to record it in notes as that was simpler than using a notebook, but obviously it occurred to me that that defeated the main purpose. All these inconveniences made me more aware of how much I use my phone with little purpose.
“Who are you on the phone with now?!”
A question I am all to familiar with hearing. I have known, since I’ve had a phone, that I am big on phone calls. My friends often make fun of me and tease me about how often I am actually on the phone. As evident in this assignment too, I am someone who prefers a phone call rather than texting. Don’t get me wrong, texting is great and I do that a lot too but even if a phone call is 2 minutes, I still enjoy and prefer it. The other day I came across the picture below and later found it on a website, iwastesomuchtime.com.
As much as I did find it funny, I also found it a little scary. Whether a joke or not, I believe that people around my age don’t utilize phone calls as much as we should. Sometimes a phone call can not only get the point across better but also can mean more to someone. I think personally, it is something that helps me overall communicate better in person to person contact too. I have always been a comfortable speaker and have always enjoyed speaking so I find comfort in phone calls rather than text, where I have to write down and condense my thoughts.
As far as altogether usage, I think I would fall in the middle of the pack. I know, especially in my friend group, there are definitely people who use it more than I, but there are certainly people who use it less. Personally, I have really learned from this how often I use my phone for purposely reasons. That was something I did not like. As previously stated, I would often take out my phone while walking to class and check social medias that I have already checked or do other pointless actives on my phone simply because I had nothing else to do, besides walk. This was a trait I tried to limit during this assignment and I honestly enjoyed it. My walks were a little more peaceful and it was nice to just enjoy my walk, taking a break for myself before my next class. Another thing I learned about my phone usage was how often I use my computer instead. For twitter and texting especially, I like to view both of those on a desktop. Twitter.com is easier to read and go through the tweets rather than on the phone and I personally like it better. I also learned I am an avid user of iMessage on my mac. It is convenient for me to answer a text on my computer if I am at the library since it is easily accessible and quicker to type. Since I tracked my phone usage during midterms I was at the library a lot and a lot of the reason why my textual interactivities were low was due to using my computer instead.
At the end of the day, I was honestly changed by this assignment for the better. I enjoy using my phone less now and feel a little bit like it is a burden sometimes. I challenge other people to try this and to truly see how they feel after tracking themselves.