Some links:

• The bubble quiz we took
• Rural America as its own bubble
• Red feed/Blue feed: interactive exercise in how Facebook responds to what it thinks are your politics (Wall Street Journal online)
• Fake news on Facebook
• Has a group of college students just solved the fake news problem?

 Well, I suppose I’m not that against media. I’m really just busy. After doing a third day and comparing all three days, I realized that I don’t hate media or I’m an old lady, I’m just really busy. Almost too busy to use media. The red line on the graph (since the key disappeared) is Friday. My media usage isn’t too shabby. I’m using it for a little bit. I also tend to wind down at night by scrolling through Twitter. The green line represents Saturday when I didn’t do anything except go out with friends that evening. Once I woke up, since I wasn’t busy, I was able to be on media. The very sad blue line represents Tuesday, a day when I have class and work. Even when I get off work, I’m so busy that I don’t even have time to properly wind down with social media. Honestly, social media just does not fit into my very busy schedule. I seem to always be doing something related to school that I don’t have the time for anything else to distract me.

With that being said, when I do allow myself to not doing anything and focus on social media, I am able to thoroughly enjoy reading what everyone else in the world is saying about everything (particularly the current events in politics). These comments that I see make me feel more human and not so busy and demanding. It reminds me that it’s alright and that I’m going to be alright.

After logging my media use last week, I decided to log my use another day, to see if anything has changed. I chose to do this experiment on Thursday because I didn’t have a test on Friday, and had a date night that night.

I began to notice that I still use media as frequently as I did before. I had two 75 minute classes back to back on Thursday, and I found myself scrolling through my media when the lecture got boring, or shifting to a different website while taking notes on my laptop. When I was done with class I decided to do other things to distract myself from using media. I took a nap, and also went to an hour workout class where phones are not even allowed in the room. These were both nice breaks from using media, and I felt better as if I had been on a “media cleanse” for those couple of hours. It is difficult to stay loyal to this cleanse however, because I feel as if my phone is constantly going off because of groupme’s, or I’m constantly using it to listen to Spotify in the car or when I’m studying. I also still feel the constant urge to scroll through instagram or check snapchat, basically all the time. It’s become almost an addiction that I feel is very difficult to break, especially when I am trying to do other things, or have nothing to do at all.

All in all, this experiment has made me realize that I am dependent on my media, and while it will be difficult to limit myself on a daily basis, I will continue to try and take hour breaks to do other things, and distract me from all of the technology around me.

I chose to do another day of the week where I monitored my media. I chose to do it on a Wednesday because I’m done with class at 11:00. I conducted it the same way I did before, but this time I was more aware of the facts that I was monitoring my media usage. The major thing I noticed was that my Netflix time went down A LOT, but my school related media went up a lot. This was due to the fact that I had a psych test, a math test, a basic skills test, and an essay due the next day, so I was basically holed-up in my dorm and studied. I still watched some Netflix, but it was mostly during meal times (the only breaks from studying I took that day) and before I went to bed. The school related media I used was mostly email, word, various school websites, and my online textbooks. I had like 12 tabs open on my computer at one time. My time spent on Instagram and Snapchat didn’t change much. I still did little, periodical checks during my studying. Because I did have so much due the next day, it made me wish I had picked a different day because that’s not how my normal day goes, but it was interesting to see how much media I used when I did have a lot going on.

After looking at my media usage last week, I decided to make some changes and evaluate my usage for two days, Friday and Saturday, in order to get my usage on a day when I have school and a day when I don’t have school. On Friday because I only had one class, I had to put in a lot more effort to ensure that I wasn’t spending time on my phone. I spent a lot of my time off my phone by keeping my self busy with homework, or taking a nap or something of that sort. But, I did a pretty good job of it by reminding myself that I should be more productive and the best way to do so was to stay off my phone. I also used PocketPoints which was also a huge factor as to I was not touching my phone, therefore not logging into any social media. I only scrolled through my social media when I woke up in the morning and right before I was about to fall asleep, which is what I do on a regular basis and I don’t mind it. I’ve kept my habit of only being on social media when I’ve gotten a notification instead of the  mindless scrolling that I used to do. I’ve also worked on making sure that my phone is away from me while I’m studying or working on homework in order to further avoid any distractions like notification which could lead me to get back on social media thus leading to wasted time on social media.

It was a little bit more difficult controlling my social media usage on Saturday because I had no classes and I spent a lot of my day at the game or relaxing which gave me a lot of opportunities to be on my phone. Because of the massive amount of free time I had increased, I found that it required a lot more changing to my schedule to ensure that I didn’t spend more time than I wanted to allocate to my social  media usage. I found myself constantly reminding myself to stay off my phone, more than I’d like. However, when looking back at my usage at the end of the day, I found that I used it less than I usually would’ve and I also found that I didn’t mind the limitation I had set for myself and actually enjoyed it because I could spend more time on focusing on the game, or homework, or whatever leisure activity that I was participating in.

Overall, I found it very interesting how much I had to change my usage and how analyzing the usage by hours affected how I addressed it. I think the analysis has given me a new perspective about my personal media usage and what the best schedule is in order to maximize my  usage while at the same time not wasting my time on it.

Through this social media audit, I could instantly see the trends and issues with my social media usage. I visually see the amount of class time and study time that I had wasted. It was most apparent on Friday. I woke up and instantly was on my phone, an obvious bad habit. I would lay in bed on my phone for a while and then go to shower. This immediately starts off my day in a negative manner and is a form of habitual procrastination. I can see that I spent almost 1/3 of my time in class on Friday browsing through my phone for various forms of social media. I certainly did not gain anything from this action; I only lost some notes and words of my professors. Throughout the day, I wasted more time by watching Netflix instead of being productive and studying. Throughout the day I was just generally on my phone and paying attention to media more than I realized. When I went to the gym I was listening to Spotify the entire time, while not entirely distracting, it certainly isn’t healthy. After this I procrastinated more homework late into the night by being on my phone and playing Xbox. This prompted me to turn off my phone and I actually got work done efficiently.

Saturday, I woke up at 1 and was instantly on my phone. I was essentially trying to catch up on the events that I missed in the Social Media realm the night before and that morning. This, I have classified as a form of FOMO, where I actually felt like reading or seeing something on Social Media could make me feel better about missing it in real time. I moved on to play Tennis during the day and was not on my phone or engaging in media very much. Afterwords I played Xbox with some friends, which counts as a form of media. That night at dinner I noticed me and all of my friends I was eating with constantly were checking our phones instead of actually having a good conversation. Then we watched the UGA football game and all were at various points on our phones texting or sending snapchats. The game was a form of media as well. I noticed that this was hours on end of being associated with a form of media. Then that night I spent some time texting while hanging with friends and before bed. Overall a lot of social media usage this day.

Using the double line graph, I was easily able to see the similarities between my social media usage on a Friday and on a Saturday. This was very surprising to me. Even though I woke up much later on the Saturday, the chart still shows how similar the trajectories were of my usage. The trend for both was a lot of social media in the morning, followed by a slight down tick. In the afternoon before dinner I found myself engaged in many other forms of media such as Xbox and Spotify. During and after dinner my usage declined somewhat, but not to ideal levels by any means. Then at night while hanging with friends, or trying to get homework done, I noticed that my overall media usage was enormous. I realized just how much genuine time I had missed out on by being obsessed with social media. Before bed I also noticed the trend of being on my phone instead of trying to fall asleep. Overall, these two days opened my eyes to how much time I waste by being engaged in Social Media.

This prompted me to make a change. On this past Tuesday I turned my phone off and left it in my bookbag. I was instantly so much more productive in class than when my phone was on. I was more socially inclined in between classes and also motivated to get homework done. I hardly procrastinated either. Of course, when I turned it back on at night, I was instantly trying to relive the day. This opened my eyes to how much of a temptation our phones actually are. Perhaps in the future I will be able to be more conscious of my social media habits as a result of this audit.

After tracking my media usage twice last week, I was fascinated to see if the amount of media I used was just a fluke. I decided to track another weekday but this time on Wednesday, so I could see if it was just my Tuesday/Thursday classes that required so much media. After analyzing the data from Wednesday I know realize that media usage is inevitable in one’s life. Wednesday began around 11 am for me with a quick look to my social media. After checking all of my favorite sites, I headed to Bolton for a quick breakfast before my Anthropology class, where I would be lectured for a straight 50 minutes. Constantly looking at projector will never go out of style I guess. I can bet I will be exposed to this style of teaching for the next four years. After Anthropology, I went hope and watched two episodes of a series on Netflix and had to head over to Interpersonal Communications class. During this class we actually had an activity so I had more one on one personal interaction which gave me a slight break from my media usage. After class I headed home and studied in the Creswell study lounge, reading my geography textbook for roughly two hours, and then watched Netflix for another two hours. This is the rough outline of my Wednesday.

I now wonder if it is college that is exposing me to so much media or if it just the lifestyle of the 21^st century. Looking back on high school, you begin to realize that you were exposed to media for a nonstop eight hours. Going from class to class, having lecture after lecture. To take a break from this media, you would try to sneak a look at your social media. It’s interesting to think that, while in college, I actually have more of an option to cut back on my usage, because I am no longer forced to sit in class for eight hours. The media I consume on a daily basis is because I have trained my brain to no longer be pleased with doing nothing. I have to keep myself preoccupied in some way otherwise who knows what will happen. Whether it be on my way to class or simply sitting in my room. I am never quite doing nothing.

After recording my media usage last week, I decided to record my usage again this week to see if I would still use media just as much as I did last week.  In short, the answer is yes.

I chose to log my media on Wednesday, which is the same day I chose to record last week.  I only have one class on Wednesdays, so I figured I wouldn’t use media too much.  Another reason I chose another Wednesday  is because last week I had a test that I was studying for all day, so I decided to see if I would use media in the same amount when I didn’t have anything to study for.  My expectations going into this were that I would use media a lot less this time, or I would use media the same amount but just for stupid things and not at all work related; however, I still used media mostly for school work.

A few things didn’t change at all during this day.  I listened to music for about an hour and a half while at the gym and then watched the same two programs on tv at the end of my day (I do this every Wednesday-it’s the only constant I have in my ridiculously crazy life).  But even without having a test or anything to study for or a real need to be doing school work, I found myself doing work any second I could.  I almost feel like I’m afraid of wasting my time if I’m not doing something, so any chance that I get I try to get ahead on homework or papers that need to be done.  With Wednesday being a day I don’t have much class time, I have a lot of time to just start math or chem homework or do my English papers.  I don’t really feel like there’s anything that I need to change about my media use since I mostly use it for school; I even deleted Instagram off of my phone to see if I found myself having withdrawals, and I didn’t even remember that I deleted it until a few days later when I was trying to show my friend someone I was talking about.  So overall, I don’t really have a feeling that I need to use media less, I’m definitely using it a lot, but I also feel like there’s not much I can do about it