Taylor’s Technology Mindfulness Project!
Blog Entry #1:
The Smart phone compulsion test does not acurrately describe my smartphone usage habbits. I feel as if I can go with or without my phone however, the life that I am personally living calls for the usage of smartphones. It states that I need to see a therapist for addiction. I do not believe that I am addicted to my phone. I feels as if I need my phone for my everyday life. I would not consider myself dependant on my phone at all. On the other hand, online school makes me use my phone more, my email for work, and so on. The society that we have created demands us to use our phones more and unfortunately to be available 24/7.
Blog Entry #2:
I definetly have a routine in the morning using my smartphone. The very first thing I do is turn my alarm off. Yes, I use my smartphone as an alarm clock. I have actually never owned an alarm clock it has always been my phone. I then find myself scrolling through facebook to wake myself up. Once up I check my snapchats and snap back the people I have streaks with. A streak on snap chat is when you consecutively snap each other for more than one day. After that I start my getting ready routine. I then throughout the day keep up with notifications and check my snapchat, emails, Facebook, and messenger periodically. Once home and relaxing after my day I scroll through Tiktok and Facebook until I fall asleep. I use my smartphone intertwined in my daily routine as well as an escape of boredom. I would say that I spend around four hours a day on my phone. The number of times I check my phone is most-likely outrageous because I tend to unlock my phone just to have something to do. I would say I check my phone over a hundred times a day.
Blog Entry #3
I have a lot of apps that I love to use. Most of my friends tell me I am the mother of the group because I share everything on Facebook, while they are all editing pictures to post on their Instagram. I do use Instagram but not as often as Facebook. The other app that I use on a daily basis is Snapchat I am always on snapchat talking to people throughout the day. It is easier to snap a picture than it is to send a text message. I use the app Musi for all of my music and Tiktok for night entertainment. I use many other apps but those are my favorite. I will post down below screenshots of my home screen in order. (Ps: I love Jax Teller off of The Son’s Of Anarchy)
Blog Entry #4:
The data that I have collected through the moment app consist of usage between 2–5 hours per day. I usually use my phone the least on Sundays. This makes sense because I am usually at church and with family for most of the day. I also get on my phone from 11am–5pm for most of my time and the rest is after 12 at midnight. This explains why I am constantly tired. I am satisfied with my results because that is a reasonable time to spend on my phone considering taking on online school this semester. These figures are not what I expected which is why I am pleased with these numbers. I figured I would spend 7 hours or more on my phone but I do not. This makes me feel better about myself and my smartphone usage.
Blog Entry #5:
The following are the two mitigate ways that I chose to do with my smartphone. I first started by turning off notifications to all apps. The only notification I had on was if someone called me. However, I kept my phone on vibrate so it would not ring.
Turn Off Notifications: I turned off all notifications to apps for a week and it has been more stressful to me than having them on. I did have moments where I freaked out and had to go check my emails and messages because there has just been so much going on. I am so use to taking care of things right when they are sent to me that I felt the need to check my phone more often than I did when my notifications where on. Once I am done with school for about a month and a half I feel as if it will be easier for me to complete this task and feel more at ease with it. I am going to try it again the week after we are done with finals and see if it helps my stress level. I have a hard time dealing with stress and it is very easy to see when I am stressed out by my skin. I have very bad eczema and when stressed I break out. Hopefully this will be one way that I can detox my body when I have a break in school.
Weekend Digital Detox: This system worked much better than turning off all of my notifications. I am a person that tends to get all of my homework done on the weekdays so I have the weekends to myself and can do what I want. I actually went full out the weekend of turning off my phone and leaving it in my room. I went out Friday night and seen my best friend sing in Florence. She asked me to be her Maid of Honor there as well. It was a very sweet moment that I got to take all in without a phone getting in my way. Then I stayed with my brother that night and got up and went hog hunting with one of my good friends Colby and my brother Jake. Now when we go hog hunting we actually go get in the boat and ride all the way to an island between the Murrels Inlet and Georgetown. We put in at the Yauhannah landing and rode about thirty minutes. We hunted all day until it was dark. This Island is actually pirvate and both my family and Colbys family pays to hunt on. We all came back and cooked deer poppers on the hog cooker at my brothers house. Sunday I went to church with my best friend Grace and ate lunch with her family. I ended the day with a Sunday afternoon nap that I look forward to each week. It was so much fun getting to know everyone that I am constantly around even better. I was very surprised at how much I relaxed while doing activities I have done since I was a child. The weekends have always been considered ‘me time’ for me. This is why I believe that it was easier for me than turning off my notifications. I knew in the back of my head nothing was due.
Blog Entry #6:
Since I had already left my phone off and in my room for a weekend I tried this experiment of leaving my phone in my room during the week. It was very rough for me. I did not get to listen to my music playlist on the way to work. I was not able to pass bored times during work with glances at my phone. But, it did make me realize that I have so many other things that I could be doing. I cleaned out a bunch of filing cabinets at work and cleaned my desk up a little too. I am not an organized person by no means. I believe that a clean mess means you’ve done good work for the day. However, when I did not have my smartphone to pass the time I was able to get more motivated to do the things that I hate. That thing is CLEANING!
Blog Entry #7
I conducted the Mindfulness experiement and I actually did not have any impulses leading me to any of my apps. This might have been because at the time I did not have any notifications or unread messages. I did not have curiosity that tugged at my feelings I simply was just staring at my phone. I did however, feel a sense of frustration come to me when I was just staring at my phone. I believe it is because I know how much this little device runs my life and it makes me jealous. This frustration comes from being overwhelming with life. Then the mindfulness project asked if I felt worried as looked at my phone. This is very accurate. I am what you would called a worry wart. I take things to heart because I want to do my best on everything. But, with everything going on with Corona Virus it is impossible to live how we normally do. Just letting it be has never worked for me I have to take a long bath with candles and get into bed to calm myself down most of the time. I do not have any type of fatigue when I looked at my phone at all. I do feel as if there is doubt when looking at my phone. My attention is always half towards my phone and the other half is on whatever else I am doing. I manage my life around my smartphone schedule rather than managing my schedule around my smartphone. I do feel as if I do not have complete control of my life because my smartphone has half of everything of me. I do feel as if this experiment has made me realize that I need to take control of my life from my smartphone rather than letting my smartphone control me.
Blog Entry #8
This is my data represented in a graph of totals from the months of September to December. I had a total of 11395 minutes on my phone and 3830 pickups.
This graph shows how much the usage of my phone fluctuated. However most of the time I did not go over two hours using my phone in a day time. This was very encouraging to me. I do however check my phone way to much to only be on it for less than two hour a day. Here is a chart with how much I check my phone:
I averaged around 35–40 pickups daily but there were times where I exceeded over 70 pickups a day. This is outrageous but understandable because I have my notification on on all of my apps.
I have concluded that I am not as addicted to my phone as I expected to see once I downloaded the Moment App. I do not use my phone through out the day unless I receive a notification. I am usually on my phone in the mornings and in the evenings. I have become more aware to pay attention to how I pass my time when using my smartphone. I have also made it a priority to not be as dependent on technology as I once was. My smartphone and technology time is usually when I am dealing with school and work situations therefore, I cannot cut out this time fully. I have to learn how to monitor and control myself when on such applications. I am going to continue to set goals for myself to disconnect regularly in the future.
