On September 28th, before I went to bed, I went ahead and deleted all the social media apps on my phone including: Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook. Since I rarely ever use social media on anything other than my phone, I knew this would be the best way to test myself. Starting on September 29th I had no access to any of these apps for 72 hours.
On the first day, after waking up, I immediately grabbed my phone to check my social media’s. However, I quickly realized that I had deleted those apps for the intention of limiting my media usage. I then checked my text messages and responded to all the ones that had been previously unread. Since I did not have anything to check, my mind was yearning for something else to stimulate it. I opened over 40 text messages that I had forgotten/ or just never opened and responded to almost all of them. I am usually too busy doing other things on my phone to text, so it was weird for me.
Throughout the day, I realized that without the apps, I often found myself bored and with nothing to do. I also felt as if I had no idea what was going on in the world. Whenever I am on the shuttle, or in long classes, I often go on Facebook or Instagram to help pass time. However, for these 72 hours, I found myself bored a lot more than I usually am. I never really realized how much of my day I spend on my phone on social media before doing this project. Without having any of the apps, I found that the amount of time I even spent using my phone went down significantly.
Although the urge to check these apps never completely went away, it definitely decreased on the third day. I found that I would often check my social media feeds for the sole reason of having nothing else to do. It was just a daily part of my schedule. I realized I spend way too much time on these apps and even though I will probably never actually delete the apps for good, I will definitely be decreasing the amount I do because I found that by not having them, I was more productive with my time and was replying to text messages much better than I ever have.
On the first day, after waking up, I immediately grabbed my phone to check my social media’s. However, I quickly realized that I had deleted those apps for the intention of limiting my media usage. I then checked my text messages and responded to all the ones that had been previously unread. Since I did not have anything to check, my mind was yearning for something else to stimulate it. I opened over 40 text messages that I had forgotten/ or just never opened and responded to almost all of them. I am usually too busy doing other things on my phone to text, so it was weird for me.
Throughout the day, I realized that without the apps, I often found myself bored and with nothing to do. I also felt as if I had no idea what was going on in the world. Whenever I am on the shuttle, or in long classes, I often go on Facebook or Instagram to help pass time. However, for these 72 hours, I found myself bored a lot more than I usually am. I never really realized how much of my day I spend on my phone on social media before doing this project. Without having any of the apps, I found that the amount of time I even spent using my phone went down significantly.
Although the urge to check these apps never completely went away, it definitely decreased on the third day. I found that I would often check my social media feeds for the sole reason of having nothing else to do. It was just a daily part of my schedule. I realized I spend way too much time on these apps and even though I will probably never actually delete the apps for good, I will definitely be decreasing the amount I do because I found that by not having them, I was more productive with my time and was replying to text messages much better than I ever have.