Personal Media Usage
Let's start from the beginning. Before I ever received a phone, I had an iPod first and when that got old then I upgraded to an iPad mini. I used these devices mainly to play games on road trips and things of that sort but even then my parents restricted me on how much time I was allowed to spend on these devices. My parents had a rule that I was not allowed to have a phone until I was thirteen which at the time seemed ridiculous that my parents made me wait that long. Looking back now, thirteen even seems a little young to be responsible enough to have a phone and I am glad that my parents didn't let me have one before that age. Since a lot of my friends had gotten phones at around ten or eleven, I remember having apps on my iPod and iPad that I could text my friends on. As the years have gone on, I have gotten a new phone every two years when my contract is up.
My day usually starts off with my alarm going off at seven a.m. for weights. I am not the type of person to check my social media before I get out of bed because that usually results in falling back asleep. After I get back from weights in the morning I won't usually touch my phone until after I have gotten ready for class in the hour of downtime I have while I eat breakfast. I tend to get on my phone at the beginning of class to check my personal emails or make sure that I haven't missed anything important. I get pretty distracted in class so I will end up checking my phone quite a bit. After class, I head to practice so I have a break from social media but as soon as I get out the first thing I do is check my social media. The last part of my day is usually when I spend the most time on social media. While I am doing homework at night, I have found that I have to turn my phone off so that I can be productive. Right before bed, I will spend all of my time on Tik Tok for about an hour until I fall asleep. My weekends look a little different than during the week. I usually sleep in until around ten or eleven but as soon as I wake up I will get on my phone for about an hour before I actually get out of bed. Saturday is usually my lazy day where I spend most of my time on my phone and Sundays are usually my homework days so I try to stay off of my phone as much as I can.
I would say that I am guilty of spending way too much time on my phone and I think my social media usage data can easily prove it. My daily average screen time is around five to six hours a day. My most used app is Snapchat an average of two or three hours a day. The next app that I use the most is Tik Tok an average of two hours a day. Then Instagram is third at thirty minutes, Safari at twelve minutes, and Facebook at ten. In one week, I used Snapchat for twenty-three hours, Tik Tok five hours, Instagram for hours, Messages for two hours, and Facebook for one hour. My total screen time for last week was forty-three hours.
Snapchat is my main form of communication. I have contemplated deleting this app because it is where I waste most of my time. When I get on my phone this is the first app that I check. I use this app not only to communicate with my friends who I see every day but also to talk and see my family and friends' faces that I don't get to see every day. Even if I don't talk to everyone I am friends with on Snapchat, I still get to see their stories and keep up with their life.
TikTok is an app that can be very beneficial. I have learned a lot of life lessons and everyday life hacks from TikTok. This app is very useful when it comes to doing assignments for class. As entertaining as this app might be, I like to say that I end up spiraling down a rabbit hole every time I open this app. Sometimes I just want to get on TikTok for fifteen minutes and will end up watching videos for an hour without even realizing it. This is the app I use to help me wind down and relax when I get in bed.
I use this app usually for two reasons. One is to keep up with friends that I don't talk to every day and the second reason is usually to shop from boutiques that have Instagram business accounts. I use to spend a lot more time on this app before TikTok became popular.
I solely use Facebook to stay in contact with my family and friends that doesn't live close to me. Facebook is known to be used by older people but it is starting to become more popular for the younger generations. I usually only get on this app at the end of the day to see the latest drama in Magnolia or see posts from my family in Florida.
Online shopping apps have been a big hit for me here recently. It is very convenient to shop on my phone rather than having to travel to the stores to buy new clothes. I usually shop on apps like Lululemon, Free People, Etsy, T R W Boutique, and Amazon. I also use resell apps quite a bit to sell clothes that I don't wear anymore. These include Mercari, Poshmark, and Curtsy.
Don't get me wrong phones are very useful but I will go through spurts where I wish phones were never invented because I feel like they have caused a big divide in our country. If I were to ever get in trouble the first thing that my parents would take would be my phone and honestly, I was never upset about it. I enjoyed being disconnected from the internet and what was going on in the social media world. I found that I was more productive when my parents would take my phone.
Here recently I have been trying a new strategy to try and keep myself off of my phone as much as possible. I have decided to try and only get on my phone every hour on the hour for about ten to fifteen minutes and then I will put it back down. So far this is not working too well for me but I am trying my best.
Personally, I feel like I abuse my personal media usage. I spend way more time on social media than what is needed for anyone. I am a very big procrastinator almost so bad that I think I could call it talent and I think my phone is the biggest contributor to my procrastination. I know that if I deleted all of my social media apps then I would definitely be more productive but that is a very big commitment.
Overall, social media has pretty much taken over my life and honestly, I am not that happy about it. I am someone who likes to be in control and the fact that social media has control over me drives me crazy. There is no doubt that social media is going to keep expanding. Although I struggle with my personal social media usage, it definitely has its perks. We are honestly blessed with the connections we have through social media and the tools that we have at our fingertips.
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