Apologies for yet another late posting, my weekends are always very chaotic with work.

I chose to record my media usage on Thursday and Saturday. The results were nothing out of the ordinary. I didn’t expect them to be much different. I don’t have classes on Thursday, so you would think I would be spending most of my free time focusing on media, but that wasn’t the case really. I checked social media when I woke up around 11 for about thirty minutes. I didn’t have any school work to do so I wasn’t having to read any media at all throughout the entire day. I spend the majority of my time with friends so the only time I really am using media is when I am posting a snapchat story. I posted three on Thursday and they were all related to what I was doing with my friends at the time. We did listen to the radio to and from dinner, but other than that I didn’t use media again until I got back into my dorm. That is when I got on my phone and checked all of the basics (twitter, instagram, facebook, and snapchat) for nearly 2 hours. So while that is a little absurd, I’d like to say my lack of media throughout the day made up for it.

Saturday I worked a double shift at Red Lobster so I had zero time to actually use media in any sense. I checked my social media for a few minutes before work and then I checked them again after work for about an hour. While I was at work I didn’t check my phone once. I went nearly ten hours without checking it. That’s how my weekends usually go unless there is a football game or concert. I am just too busy to put time towards that.

Throughout both of these days there was one media that I failed to log, but know that I used VERY frequently. That was recorded music. I listen to music at all times of the day no matter where I am – even at work. I’ve learned the lyrics to nearly every song that comes on at Red Lobster now because of how often I’m there. Music is a media that plays a very large role in my life.

I logged my social media use on Thursday and on Saturday last week, and was honestly not that surprised by the results. I know that I use media  a lot, definitely too much. What I noticed on Thursday in my 75 minute classes, is that I could hardly focus for more than 15 minutes without checking my phone. I also noticed when I was trying to study that I had to take numerous “phone breaks”. I often think about how much better I would be doing in my classes if I didn’t constantly check my phone. Even after class on Thursday the first thing I do is get on my phone. For me is something idle to do as I’m walking around campus by myself, or sitting in my dorm room. I had a social on Thursday night, and even then I was on my phone snapchatting with my friends.

Saturday I had a different schedule, but still used my media a lot. I went to breakfast with my friends and on a long walk, so I didn’t use my phone as much as I usually would during that time. I also spent a lot of time on Netflix, and online shopping. I was not surprised by how much I saw myself on my phone or using other medias, but it still concerns me to see it written down on paper. I definitely think that in this generation the go to thing to do in your down time or any time is to get on your phone and check your media, even if you’ve already checking it 5 times in the last 5 minutes. It’s turned into a bad habit for most, including for me.

I logged my media usage on Thursday and Saturday and I wasn’t really surprised because I know that I use media that much. The only thing that threw me off was seeing on paper exactly what I was doing with my phone. On Thursday I had 2 classes that were 75 minutes long so I didn’t spend a lot of time on my phone. I noticed that on Thursday I spent a lot of time on my phone when I was on the bus or when I was eating alone. Sometimes, I would get distracted if I was not focusing on getting my homework done. On Saturday, I had a lot more free time so I ended up spending more time on my phone. I had friends visit so that helped in making me get off my phone. I usually spend more time on my phone on the weekends because I have a lot more time on my hands.

At the end of these days after analyzing these two days I realized that I should reduce the amount of leisure time I spend on my phone. Although I knew that I spend a lot of time on my phone, after looking at it on the paper, written down, I realized that I spend a lot more time than I’d like. However, I think that I don’t spend mindless time on Instagram. I’ve recently started working on only being on social media when I actually have to respond to people.

I decided to log Friday and Saturday because those were the two days I thought I would use media the most, so I was interested to see how much media I used on the days I used it the most. I thought I would use it more on Saturday than on Friday, but I was surprised to find out it was the opposite.

I used social media for the first time at 9:00 am when I woke up and scrolled through Instagram, pretty much the first thing I do every morning. I continued to use media throughout the day, like listening to music while walking from class to chilling in my dorm watching Netflix. I had a lot of homework to due this weekend, so naturally I procrastinated and watched a lot of Netflix. That was pretty much all I did Friday because I’m done with class at 12:00. I periodically checked my various social media accounts throughout the day, mostly just Instagram and Snapchat. I went to dinner and hung out with friends Friday night, so I really wasn’t on social media too much after 7:00 except to take a snapchat or two with one of my friends.

On Saturday, I continued to put off homework by watching Netflix and online shopping. I got on Instagram when I woke up like usual, but I didn’t check it again until around mid-afternoon. When I did get on it again, I (regretfully) spent about 15 minutes scrolling through the explore page looking at random accounts. I started to do some homework, so I made sure to put my phone away for a while. I got dinner with my sister, and then went to my friend’s dorm beside me to paint and relax with a couple of friends from our hall. I used social media occasionally to snap what I was doing to some of my friends and family back home. I got on social media and watched a little bit of Netflix before I went to bed.

This blog assignment was really interesting because I was able to see how much time I spent on media. It also opened my eyes to what could be considered media. I realized that I waste a lot of my time on media, whether it be Instagram, Snapchat, Netflix, or Youtube. I also noticed I used media more when I had homework to do and I didn’t feel like doing it. I did pretty well with making sure to put away when I was with friends, which surprised me. I didn’t use social media as much as I thought I did; my media time was mostly spent watching Netflix. All in all, this was a pretty cool “experiment” and opened my eyes to things I wasn’t aware of before. I will definitely be monitoring my time on Netflix thanks to this!

Goodness, I must not be a young person.

I say that because it seems that stereotypical young people always seem to be on their phones. Whether they’re on social media, taking pictures or doing research (this is actually a thing), they’re always on their phones.

I, on the other hand, pick up my phone when I’m around other young people. So I guess I’m only a young person when other young people are around. Honestly, I only get on Twitter  when I’m eating in a dining hall around young people, or when I’m at home with my roommate. Other than that, I don’t ever get on social media much.

Apparently, I’m just not a young person until I’m around other young people. And realizing this made me want to use my phones more. I would find myself trying to get a lot of data to analyze. Because of this, there is a lot of data that is not generally applicable to my normal everyday life. For this reason, it’s interesting to see that apparently I’m actually somewhat self-conscious about my media usage.

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.

From logging my media usage on Thursday and Saturday I surprisingly found that I used media less on the weekend day versus the weekday. It was probably the circumstances of the week’s events that made it so because I would have expected my media use to be much higher on the weekend rather than on the weekday.

This past Thursday I was using media pretty much constantly. During the week I tend to spend most of my time alone, especially in between classes, so walking to and from classes I am always using my phone to listen to music or look at social media. Once I get to class though I will put my phone away; however, I then pull out my laptop to take notes. In class I am reading from the professor’s projector screen and simultaneously typing up notes in Word. On Thursdays I have MIST where we learn how to master Excel so I have to use my laptop for the class anyway.  After MIST I listened to music again on my way back to my dorm just to go watch a quick episode on Netflix before my next class in another hour. The other class I had on Thursday was my History of Rock n Roll class where I also use my laptop to take notes while simultaneously looking at the projector screen where the notes are displayed. In this class we listen to examples of the music genres we learn about so I was still using media nonstop. After class ended I went to have lunch by myself, but I also preoccupied myself by studying for a bio test, looking at notes on eLC while eating. For the rest of the day I was studying for tests I had. My geography test was Friday so from 8pm to almost 2am my friend and I were in the MLC studying, constantly looking at our laptops to refer to and edit the Google Doc of the study guide we created while writing notes on a whiteboard. Everything I needed to study for the day I needed to use my laptop so I couldn’t get away from media usage.

On Saturday one of my best friends visited me from KSU, and we were able to have some quality bonding time. She came in the evening around 6, so before her arrival I was studying bio at the MLC for 4 hours because I knew I wouldn’t be studying later since I had to host. With her I found myself actually using media less than Thursday because we could talk in person and catch up with each other. Nothing on our phones seemed to be interesting us more than each other’s company. For a good 2 or 3 hours we just sat in my dorm just talking and catching up with some friends she hadn’t seen in a while that also go to UGA. We had a nice night in and watched a movie on Netflix like we always used to do.

It surprised me that I used media way more on a weekday than on a weekend day, but I think that happened because of the timing of events. Having 2 tests to study for definitely made me use media more while having my best friend to host got me to put the media down and enjoy her company without the technology, at least for a little bit.

After two days of logging and observing my social media usage, I realized I use my phone a lot more on the weekends as opposed to on a typical weekday. I made sure to observe my usage on a day I know I would use social media more frequently (Friday) as opposed to days I spent solely studying for my chemistry test (Monday-Wednesday). I frequently used social media apps on my phone when eating at dining halls or when I’m simply just chilling in my dorm room. On a weekday, I tend to not use it as much during the day (when I have classes), but observed my highest usage between the 4-6pm when I go back to my dorm after a long day of classes. This is because I like to relax during this time period and check up on everything I’ve missed during the day. I also tend to use social media before I go to bed as well. On Saturday, I found myself using social media pretty consistently throughout the day, as I was not so occupied with school and classes.

Besides the amount of time I use social media, I also observed what certain platforms I use. I use Snapchat the most, as this is an easy way to communicate with friends, and also use Twitter and Instagram. At the end of both days (Friday and Saturday) while I was out with friends, my phone died. This made me realize how often I actually do use my phone and how much those social media apps drain my battery. While I was still out with friends, I would often attempt to turn my phone on to check a certain social media app, only to remember that my phone was dead. However, it made me realize that checking these apps was not a necessity at the time, as I should be paying more attention to my friends and the current moment we’re enjoying rather than being engrossed by social media.