Technology Mindfulness Project
Corin Wiggins
Film, New Media, and Culture
Entry #1
With thirteen out of fifteen points, I should need serious help from mental health professionals according to this survey. While I would like to cut down on my use, I think that is completely unnecessary for me. I do check my phone for no reason and feel it vibrate when it hasn’t, but these are just side effects the come with the daily use of anything. I feel very confident that if I really needed to I could quit my phone cold turkey and be absoultey fine. The problem is that, in today’s world, I can’t do that. If nothing else, I still need the ability to call people. I have taken steps months ago to try to eliminate non-essential apps I wasted a bunch of time on, such as Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit. This alone has caused a drop in my phone usuage. I do recognize though that my smartphone has a very strong prevalence in my life twenty four/seven and I hope to be able to reduce that.
Entry #2
Last week I spent an average of three hours and twenty-three minutes on my phone each day which, overall, I don’t think is too bad. The total time for the week though almost reaches an entire twenty four hours. The thought of being on my phone for the equivalent of an entire day feels like a massive waste.
My most used app, by far, is Safari; basically just looking stuff up on the internet. I deleted apps off my phone that I found to be giant time wasters, such as Instagram and YouTube, but I’m still guilty of going to the YouTube website through Safari. So if I had to guess, a good chunk of that time was still spent on YouTube unfortunately.
I’m guilty of checking my phone for no reason. With that in mind, I would say I check my phone around a hundred times a day. That could vary wildly though.
Overall, I’m not exactly happy with my screen time but I know it could be, and has been, a lot worse. It's still important to recognize that I do use my phone productively. I don’t know what my iPhone is considering under the “Productivity” measurement, but I know that I’ve spent way more than and hour and seventeen minutes doing stuff I had to do. I’ve almost spent that amount of time on my school email alone.
Entry #3
As I mentioned in my pervious blog entry, I’ve removed my favorite apps, such as Instagram and Reddit, from my phone to keep myself from wasting too much time. These apps are still accessible through safari though, and while the Instagram and Reddit websites are painful compared to their app counterparts, YouTube works just fine. I’ve loved YouTube videos since I was in middle school. There are millions of videos concerning topics I have interest in, and in that respect, it’s a near infinite supply of content. I’m still guilty of watching YouTube doing basic things by myself, like eating breakfast or folding launrdy. The only difference is I’m watching it through Safari instead of the YouTube app.
Spotify is an app I utilize everyday. This week I used that app for one hour and thirty-six minutes, but that is only calculating the time I was actually looking at the app. I listened to music using Spotify for much longer than that.
While some of my top apps are different, my stats for this week are impressively similar to my stats two weeks ago. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, but at least I’m consistent.
Entry #4
Above is a screenshot of the average times I’ve spent on my phone per week for that last seven weeks. The top left is the latest and, reading in the direction of text, the weeks progress with the last week being the bottom right. I stay within the hour range of two and half to three and a half hours, although I’ve peaked at the cap of those restraints the last three weeks which I’m not happy about. Overall though, this is less time than I would’ve thought. Considering the massive role my phone plays in navigating numerous aspects of my life, three and half hours a day doesn’t seem that bad. It’s not good per se, but I know it could be a lot worse and probably is for many people my age. I went through a phase in my life where I know my time was much higher and yet less productive, but I was able to recognize this extremely unhealthy habit and take the initiative to change it. I’m really glad I did. That’s not to say that I can’t do better though. It’s imporant to note this doesn’t calculate my time on my computer though and I suspect the computer time and phone time combined would result in a scary number of hours.
Entry #5
Here are some of the techniques I want to implement to help cut down on phone usage…
Change Your Nightly Routine: I definetly waste a ton of time at night on my electronic devices. I’ve known for a while now that reading before bed is far better than staring at a screen. I used to read before bed as a kid and started to get back into it last year into this summer. But since this semester has started, I’ve reverted back to my old habits. It’s time to pick up another book again.
Meditate: I’ve only meditated before and after a yoga class. While I don’t have as many opportunities to practice yoga now, I’ve learned a lot from doing so. Taking the initiative to meditate on my own will not only cut down on my electronic usage, but benefit every other aspect of my life. Staring at your phone feels like the opposite of mindful meditation.
Turn Your Phone Off: This tip sounds obvious but I think it’ll benefit me greatly, as I almost never turn my phone off. This simple act would deter me from using the device as well as highlight how many time I instinctively reach for my phone while keeping from wasting the time I was about to waste.
Entry #6
Yesterday my girlfriend and I spent the afternoon doing stereotypical stuff like going to the mall and getting ice cream. The only thing unique about our time was that I didn’t have my phone on me. There certainly was a level of paranoia whenever I thought about my phone. I’m so used to the feeling of it in my pocket that when it wasn't my mind immdeiately lept to it being lost. This happened multiple time. But I would quickly remember I left it in my dorm and easily carry on.
Besides those spikes in my heart rate, hanging out with my girlfriend wasn’t any more or less enjoyable because, unlike some couples, we actually focus on each other. It was annoying to not have the same functionality (maybe I wanted to look something up on the internet and had to ask her to do it) but ultimately the experience was far similar than different.
Neither of us have any struggles with our phone when together. This challenge was pretty easy, but would’ve been much harder if I was by myself. If I am going to waste time on my phone, or use it in an unhealthy way, it’s always when I’m alone.
Entry #7
As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy Yoga very much. While I don’t do it as often as I should, I always find the practice to be beneficial and healing. Breathing exercises, similar to the exercise I just performed for this entry, have already decreased my phone usage. While this exercise did the same, I question if involving the physical device in the practice is necessary.
By holding the device, the phone becomes an active participant in the meditation and a negative one at that. I don’t enjoy having the source of negative energy literally in my hand, as I found it difficult to shed that energy into some positive. As opposed to refocussing my energy into something positive, I honed in the negativity. By the end of the exercise I wanted to chuck my phone out the window.
I meditate to find peace and happiness in stillness, not the opposite. For me, I’d rather mentally focus on the addictive nature of my phone and redirect that somewhere else as opposed to be literally holding the phone in my hand. These are all brand new discoveries for me though and I’m thankful this exercise has taught me so much.
Entry #8: Date Presentation and Analysis
In the span of eleven weeks I amassed a rounded total of 229 hours spent on my phone. That’s a lot of time, a lot of time I probably could’ve spent doing something else. While there’s no way of knowing the exact measurement of time spent being productive and time spent wasted, I wonder if it even really matters. No time spent on your phone is really a good use of time.
As you can see, I hit my weekly maximum of 24 hours of phone usage four times while hitting my minimum usage of 16 hours once. That’s an 8 hour difference but not a massive one. Overall, I would say my phone usage is pretty consistent.
This graph has an inherent flaw. Time values max out at 59 whereas normal numeric value maxs out at 99. So the difference from 2.55, which is two hours and fifty-five minutes, and 3.25 isn’t actually as great as this bar graph suggests. Despite this issue, it’s still an interesting graph with interesting data, especially when compared to the first graph. They tell the exact same tale.
This pie chart also needs some explaining. Apple Screen Time lists the amount of time an app is used each week and I wanted to see not only the total time but the percentage of that time my most used apps used up. I observed my top five most used apps each week and chronicled that data into this chart.
Safari absolutely dominates my time. In eleven weeks I spent a rounded total of 97 hours, nearly two thirds of my time on my phone. I would attribute this to Youtube.com, the Associated Press Election Map, and every single time I’ve looked something up, which I clearly do a lot. Messages and Spotify were the only other apps that made it in the top five every week and they don’t come anywhere close to amassing the amount of hours Safari did.
If I’ve learned anything from this project, it’s that Safari has become my new time waster. That’s a problem though, as you can’t exactly delete the internet off of your phone. Apple Screen Time doesn’t track pick ups, which would’ve been very interesting to see, but I still feel like I’ve learned a lot about my smartphone usage through tracking and analyzing this data. While I stand behind my belief that I’m not too bad when it comes to my phone, especially compared to those around me, I still strongly recognize the amount of time I’m probably wasting. I’ll certainly continue to strive towards lowering my phone usage, attempting to reach the goal of 100% efficiency and 0% waste.
