When asked to think about one way to track my digital usage over the course of this upcoming week, my mind immediately went to Snapchat. Snapchat is the one app that I check multiple times throughout the day. At this point, it might be the app I spend the most time on, as it's the main way I've been able to keep in contact with my friends through the shelter-in-place order. A good way to track my usage for this app would be through the Screen Time function, found in the Settings of Apple's iOS.
I now realize that if I choose to use the Screen Time function, I might as well track my overall activity on my iPhone instead. That would give a much wider and more accurate view of my digital habits, wouldn't it? Screen Time will not only give me my data for the week, but will let me look into the different activity breakdowns for each day too! It would be much more accurate (for me at least) than keeping up a spreadsheet, because there's a good chance that I'd forget to log some crucial data points.
Anyways, I'll report back on Friday!
Monday, April 13, 2020
I now realize that if I choose to use the Screen Time function, I might as well track my overall activity on my iPhone instead. That would give a much wider and more accurate view of my digital habits, wouldn't it? Screen Time will not only give me my data for the week, but will let me look into the different activity breakdowns for each day too! It would be much more accurate (for me at least) than keeping up a spreadsheet, because there's a good chance that I'd forget to log some crucial data points.
Anyways, I'll report back on Friday!
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| Probably going to be me at some point during this week |
On this day, I spent a total of 5 hours and 52 minutes on my phone. Compared to the other 4 days of this project, this was the day I spent the least amount of time on my phone. My digital day stay started bright and early at 6 am (if you don't count the time I was awake until 1 am) and lasted until midnight, which is typical. Surprisingly, my top app wasn't Snapchat, but the game Picture Cross, where I spent 1 hour and 18 minutes playing. Not too far behind was Snapchat, with 56 minutes spent on the social media app. Safari came in third place for most time spent, with 35 minutes spent browsing. I picked up my phone a total of 159 times and received 253 notifications, mostly from the apps Groupme and Snapchat.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
8 hours and 43 minutes were spent on my phone on Tuesday, placing it in the middle of the pack of the screen time per day. My digital day both started later and ended earlier than Monday. Once again, my top app wasn't Snapchat, but Safari! This is the second day where my prediction was wrong, what gives? Anyways, I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes on Snapchat and wasted another 57 minutes of my day playing Picture Cross. Even though more time was spent on my phone overall, I picked up my phone less at 145 total pickups. I had 315 notifications, once again primarily from Groupme and Snapchat.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
To be totally honest, this day was a digital TRAIN WRECK. My laptop decided to break! In times like this where having a functioning laptop is key, I was flustered quite a bit, especially when I had one exam and two lectures to watch. I had to move the majority of my schoolwork onto my phone and iPad, resulting in a whopping 12 hours and 14 minutes of screen time and giving it the top spot of screen time this week. However, not all of that time was spent in the purpose of academics. According to my report, 3 hours and 43 minutes were spent using social networking apps, while only 2 hours and 49 minutes were spent on reading & reference apps. Reddit took first place in the usage list, coming in with 2 hours and 2 minutes spent on the app. Snapchat followed closely behind with 1 hour and 52 minutes spent on the app, while Tik Tok took bronze with 1 hour and 43 minutes spent on the app.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
With a total of 10 hours and 31 minutes, Thursday came in at the second highest day of screen time this week. Until 8pm, I still lacked a solution to my laptop situation, leaving me to work on my phone /iPad for a second day in a row. This day featured a typical range of time used, number of pickups, and notifications. Snapchat didn't even make the top 3 apps used, being beat out by Tik Tok (2 hrs and 13 min), Instagram (1 hr and 33 min), and Safari (1 hr and 25 min). So far, my prediction of Snapchat being my top app has been false every single day of the week.
Friday, April 17, 2020 (FINAL DAY)
At the time I wrote this post, I only spent 6 hours and 51 minutes on my phone, the second-least amount of time throughout the entirety of this project. Snapchat was finally my top app of the day, with 58 minutes spent. This was followed by Settings (oddly enough) at 39 minutes and Spotify at 34 minutes spent on the app. I picked up my phone a total of 147 times and got 226 notifications, mostly from Snapchat, Canvas Student app for my CC class, and the Mail app. Had I tracked this to the end of the day, I'm sure the numbers for all of these stats would've been a bit higher than what I've reported.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
To be totally honest, this day was a digital TRAIN WRECK. My laptop decided to break! In times like this where having a functioning laptop is key, I was flustered quite a bit, especially when I had one exam and two lectures to watch. I had to move the majority of my schoolwork onto my phone and iPad, resulting in a whopping 12 hours and 14 minutes of screen time and giving it the top spot of screen time this week. However, not all of that time was spent in the purpose of academics. According to my report, 3 hours and 43 minutes were spent using social networking apps, while only 2 hours and 49 minutes were spent on reading & reference apps. Reddit took first place in the usage list, coming in with 2 hours and 2 minutes spent on the app. Snapchat followed closely behind with 1 hour and 52 minutes spent on the app, while Tik Tok took bronze with 1 hour and 43 minutes spent on the app.
Thursday, April 16, 2020
With a total of 10 hours and 31 minutes, Thursday came in at the second highest day of screen time this week. Until 8pm, I still lacked a solution to my laptop situation, leaving me to work on my phone /iPad for a second day in a row. This day featured a typical range of time used, number of pickups, and notifications. Snapchat didn't even make the top 3 apps used, being beat out by Tik Tok (2 hrs and 13 min), Instagram (1 hr and 33 min), and Safari (1 hr and 25 min). So far, my prediction of Snapchat being my top app has been false every single day of the week.
Friday, April 17, 2020 (FINAL DAY)
At the time I wrote this post, I only spent 6 hours and 51 minutes on my phone, the second-least amount of time throughout the entirety of this project. Snapchat was finally my top app of the day, with 58 minutes spent. This was followed by Settings (oddly enough) at 39 minutes and Spotify at 34 minutes spent on the app. I picked up my phone a total of 147 times and got 226 notifications, mostly from Snapchat, Canvas Student app for my CC class, and the Mail app. Had I tracked this to the end of the day, I'm sure the numbers for all of these stats would've been a bit higher than what I've reported.
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Using Screen Time gave me a detailed view of my digital habits in a way that I found to be both user friendly and easily understandable. If I could rate my experience with this, I would give it a full star review with no complaints, as it collected all of the data I could possibly need.
I would say that this is pretty representative of my digital self, as it's a statistical report of my digital habits throughout the week. There are some differences though, as I spent 18% more time on my phone this week than my average. This was probably due to the fact that I had to move most of my usually computer-based activities onto my phone because of the whole laptop situation I experienced. I also took the time to look back on my digital days from up to 2 weeks prior, where my top apps in order were Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Safari, which doesn't match equally with the data given above.
One thing I was surprised by was the amount of time I spent on my phone, especially on mindless apps like Tik Tok! I've noticed in the past that I can easily binge watch a ton of videos on that app, but I didn't think I'd spend that much time though. The one stat that surprised me the most was the 1 hour and 33 minutes I spent on Instagram on Thursday, as I usually spend less than 10 minutes total on the app. I don't remember being on there for that long, but as I've noticed with Tik Tok, I can get stuck in endless scrolling on the app's Explore feature.
Two things I could potentially use in my paper are...
- the fact that I spent more time on apps designed for social interaction/networking than any other type of app
- the difference in productivity achieved with a computer/laptop vs a smartphone (procrastination, distractions, work output, etc.)
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| Meanwhile, seeing how much time I spent has me feeling like Ron Swanson |
Hi Aliyah!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I loved the way your blog post was written! Secondly, I found it very interesting that the app you predicted was your most used wasn't until the last day. I feel that just goes to prove how much time we spend on our phones and different apps without even realizing it. Due to the fact you had to use your phone for school work, I feel as though your results are completely different than what they would have normally been because for me too, I do all my work on my laptop, leaving the social media apps to my phone. I likes how you also decided to track all the usage of your phone, comparing which apps you spent more time on. That is going to give really great data for your paper. I think your second topic idea would be a fantastic thing to write about especially because you saw the differences this week.
Hi Aliyah! I appreciate that you were keeping track of your screen time and phone usage everyday and recording them, which is the most effective way to gather data evidence and write the paper. I would like to do it like you next week. Also, I found it surprising that you did some portions of your schoolwork on your phone and you're going to compare and contrast your productivity with your mobile phone and laptop, which sounds very interesting! Moreover, I'm able to feel you when you're saying that watching small videos on TikTok could make you forget the time going by and procrastinate your schoolwork since I'm also a huge TikTok fan. Between TikTok and Instagram, I chose the latter one because I could not only have fun on it but I also socialize on it. Now, I'm kinda jealous of the data you collected because you're gonna write a good paper based on it! Haha just joking, and good luck!
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