Blog #8
I have collected data from my phone for the past 11 weeks and what I found about myself and my relationship with my phone is interesting.
The column graph above is a representation of how many hours I spent each week on my phone. I came to these numbers by tracking everyday by using the app called “moment”. This app was sometimes inaccurate due to a settings issue so I also used the screen time section in my iphone to create the weekly averages.
This pie chart shows the repetative apps and hours I used on each source for week 7 of my data collection. I chose week 7 to focus on because it was the only week besides week 1 that had the most hours spent for the week. During week 7 I took a roadtrip to Maryland, Massachusetts, and Maine (very spontaneous) and although my car was used for the trip I did not drive the entire time. I sat in the passenger seat for about half of the journey scrolling mindlessly because I was bored with the highway views, and my hours on each app show that. When I made this chart, every piece looked accurate with how I use my phone. I always use Snapchat and Instagram the most in the social media department, but Tik Tok did not have as many hours because it takes up too much data without wifi and I was in-charge of playing music in the car. The apps that did have a high hour time that are out of the normal for me is Safari, Imessage, and Spotify. My only justification for the hours being the way they are is because I was doing homework on my phone with safari while we were in the car, I had to stay in touch with roommates and family while I was away to check in, and Spotify which is a music streaming service is how I was able to play music for a good portion of the trip.
My last visual for my data collecting throughout the year is the grand total of hours spent in the 11 weeks divided into 3 categories. In the social network category I had Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Tik Tok. This of course was my highest percentage in the chart because I am always present and looking through social media to stay in touch with friends and family. In the entertainment category I had Netflix, Pinterest, Hulu, Spotify, and Youtube. The weight of the 40 hours stems from Spotify because I enjoy and listen to music on my phone essentially every day. I put Pinterest in this category because I consider it a place for inspiration of DIY’s, new and trendy looks, and new nail designs. If the app had a comments section where people could directly communicate I would move it to the social network category. In my productivity section I used apps like Safari, Quizlet, Groupme, Omega One, Outlook, Hotschedules, and PNC. All of these fall under productivity because they help in my daily tasks. Groupme is a messaging app used for big groups to text and send pictures in and is also the app my sorority uses with communicating with all members. Omega One is also an app for my sorority that tells us daily announcements, upcoming events, attendance, and a way to submit points for the semester to maintain being active. Hotschedules is an app I use for work that gives me the ability to see my schedule, any messages from co workers, and to request time off. While I understand my productivity category has more apps than the others, these apps are only used for minutes at a time throughout the week.
As a result to closely tracking my usage on my phone with apps and time spent on my phone I have been impressed with myself. My first week of tracking I did my daily phone routines like waking up and checking my phone first and looking at it every time the screen lit up from a notification. I did not change any habbit with my phone usage in week 1 because I wanted to use it as a base to see at the end of the 11 weeks if my usage stayed the same, increased, or decreased. Once I saw 40 hours for 1 week as my usage I was disgusted with that number and did my best throughout the semester to give my phone a break and to enjoy life around me. I am now more aware of my phone usage since this project and I now strive to keep my usage per week at a lower level. Since I have cut down my hours on my phone, my social life with people standing infront of me has increased and I pay attention more to what is infront of me instead of on my phone. Even though the class is ending I am going to keep the time usage app on my phone because I get notifications about the hours for the day and I enjoy keeping track of it. What I can do moving forward to maintain fewer hours on my phone is turning my notifications off, paying attention to the hours per day, and spending time with people in front of me.
