This media probe brought about some unexpected realizations about my media habits, specifically on social media. I logged usage on Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th.

My Friday’s are rather uneventful days, as I only have one class beginning at 10:10. I wake up around 9 and browse through all of my social media(Snapchat, text, Bleacher Report, News, Groupme, Instagram). All of this is out of procrastination of the day and my lack of energy to get out of bed. While showering I listened to music through spotify as I usually do. On the way to class I am texting and listening to music. During class I occasionally check messages and emails as my class is a lecture class and being on my phone is not noticeably bad. However, this particular econ class prohibits the use of computers. This forces me to take notes with pen and paper which is not foreign to me. After class I went back to my rooms and actually took a 4 hour nap. Dazed and confused when I awoke, I checked just about every form of social media. I noticed that I wasn’t actually interested or even procrastinating anything, but I was actually curious and almost nervous to see if I had missed out on something in the electronic world while asleep. I move on with the day and Facetime my mom. After, I go to the gym and use spotify to listen to music. In between working out I noticed that I was browsing through instagram and responding to snapchats instead of actually being productive and working out. After the gym I ate dinner by myself and watched netflix. I went back to the dorm and did some homework and actually had to shut my phone off because I was getting nothing done. This lasted until 3 AM when I finally looked at messages before bed.

On Saturday I woke up at 2 PM very confused. Again, “Fear of Missing Out” set in and I habitually checked all forms of social media. I felt like I had to relive the part of the night that I had had my phone shut off for, as well as the entire morning. I scrolled through Instagram, snapstories, checked sports scores on Bleacher Report as well as read Fox News. I seriously felt as if I needed to be updated on my friends past 20 hours. I then went on to listen to spotify in the shower. After that I went and played Tennis with some friends and during breaks I responded to texts. After this, I went and showered and played some Xbox with minimal media exposure besides Xbox, the intended activity. Next I went to dinner with some friends and noticed my tendencies(as well as my friends) to check their phones mid conversation which definitely hindered the flow of communication.  After dinner, we watched the UGA game on TV, as well as streamed various other games on our laptops simultaneously. I was responding to texts and snapchats throughout the duration of this as well. After the game, I went to a party of which most people were taking pictures, sending snapchats, or responding to texts. I found myself doing the latter two. My night was still fun but the fact that I had my phone with me at all sort of tempered the amount of fun I could possibly have; it was always being interrupted. Before bed, as a procrastination attempt for sleep I watched Netflix. At 3 AM Creswell actually had a fire alarm go off, so I ended up snapchatting that as well along with many other students.

Overall I noticed that most of my media and social media activities were not intended. I never experience some special sort of joy or satisfaction out of the interaction. This has become a sort of habitually unnatural phenomenon in my life and seemingly in others as well. I constantly am looking at my phone not out of enjoyment but habit or need. The fact that I can actually feel like I was missing out on something when I sleep for a long period of time or shut my phone off somewhat defines this generations dependency on social Media. No matter what we are doing or have just been doing, we will always be interacting with some form of media.