After graphing the data I collected on my media usage last week, I confirmed the fact that I use media the most in my down time when I want to relax. When I’m with friends, I try not to use it as much, but when I’m alone, I can spend two + hours just mindlessly watching Netflix. The periods of time where I clearly spent the most time using some form of media were either times that I had class and needed to use my laptop, or I had a few hours to relax and chose to use media; whether it was watching Netflix or just scrolling through Instagram or Twitter. I don’t think that this is a bad thing in moderation, but I do want to try and use my free time to do other things besides scrolling through social media or watching TV.  Reading, drawing, journaling, may be a better use of my time.

Surprisingly, I also noticed that I use less social media on weekends than on weekdays. I think this might be because social media is such and easy way to fill in the little increments of time you have in between classes, whereas your day is wide open on the weekends. On the weekends, however, when I did use a form of media, it was for an extended amount of time. This also may have to do with the fact that my day was wide open, so it can go both ways.

This past weekend, my goal was to stay off my phone when with friends. At the football game on Saturday, I admittedly did take a few  photos and Snapchat some, but I didn’t let social media get in the way of spending time with my friends. My family also came up for the game, so I spent time with them instead of checking up on social media.

Friday, however, was my by far my most successful day, as I didn’t even pick up my phone once when I went to a dance with some friends. Not worrying about Snapchat or Instagram made it so much easier to just have fun and live in the moment. I saw a lot of people taking Snapchat videos and updating their feeds, but not caring about all of that really does take a very heavy load off of your shoulders.