RACHEL KLINE’S PHONE DIARY
TOTAL ACTIVITIES: 301
TOTAL TIME: 17,638 Seconds = 293.96 minutes = 4 hrs 54 minutes
| 9.43% | Texting: 1,664 seconds = 28 minutes
| 13.35% | Snapchat: 2,355 seconds = 39 minutes
| 10.99% | Twitter: 1,938 seconds = 32 minutes
| 12.19% | Instagram: 2,150 seconds = 36 minutes
| 16.88% | Facebook: 2,977 seconds = 50 minutes
|36.06%| Spotify: 6360 seconds = 1 hr 46 minutes
|1.1%| Checking The Time = 176 seconds = 3 minutes
I always knew I had a bad habit when it came to checking my phone. I clicked on it when I wanted to check the time, when I was bored, when I felt uncomfortable in a situation, when I was walking home from class, etc., but I never knew HOW bad I was until I completed this assignment. There were multiple times where I found myself checking my phone 2 or 3 times before I realized I had been staring at the small screen, and I would become frustrated that I now had to go back into my little blue book and record each of the events.
After a few hours of recording every time I touched my phone, I became very interested in the assignment. I knew some people were recording specific chunks of information into sections (like 2 hours devoted to texting, 21 minutes devoted to Facebook, and so on), but I wanted to REALLy know how much I relied on my phone in every day use. I tried my best to stay with the regular pace of my usage, but I found myself changing my phone habits. The urge to check my phone per usual was almost an itching feeling in my fingertips. I had to concentrate on little things like walking or people watching to keep my mind off of my phone. I found this extremely interesting.
The psychology of my phone usage intrigued me. Each time I noted down each press of a button or each swipe of the lock screen, my book became more and more full.
I would have to change pages almost every hour to keep up with how often I was checking social media or texting my friends. I still can’t believe I spent so much time clicking the button just to check to see what time it was. I was at first surprised to see that I had only spent 3 minutes, until I realized each time I checked my phone was only 1 second each. I checked the time 176 times!! Unbelievable!
Before I realized it, I was nearly halfway done with my booklet. My friends all called me crazy, but honestly if they had participated I think they would have received results even more insane than mine. When we walked into class on Friday, I was almost upset that the project was over. I was very curious to see what my booklet would have looked like had there been one extra day!
This project has shown me how reliable I am on my cellular device. I use it for communication, social media, entertainment, time, math, weather… you name it, I am sure I have performed it on my phone. The scary part about it all is that I know I couldn’t live without my phone. Our culture today has become so dependent on this small piece of technology that modern day society wouldn’t be able to function without it. Every piece of us today is shaped and molded by the small metal cellular device that connects us individually to one another, and (as bad as this is to say) it scares me to think of a world where we don’t have this kind of technology.