My Social Media Usage

When thinking about my social media usage, only one thing came to mind...

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But, rather than thinking only in Mean Girls references, I decided to quantify the amount of time I spend on my phone, using social media or other apps. Over the last few days, (May 2-May 5) I checked in with the Screen Time function that Apple loads on to iPhone users' devices. Take a look at what I saw!

Image Credit: Author

So far this week, the most amount of time I spent on my phone was 5 hours and 24 minutes on Monday, May 2. At first, this amount of time shocked me, but then I remembered that we were not in school because staff and students were celebrating Eid Al-Fitr. Because I had the day off, I spent it relaxing on my phone, scrolling aimlessly through TikTok for a grand total of 2 hours and 49 minutes. Now that I'm thinking about it, it's a miracle my brain isn't complete mush. 

It seems that during the week, my most used apps vacillate between TikTok and Spotify. When it comes to my Spotify use, I am the kind of person who needs some sort of noise in the background, so I use this app frequently. Typically, I use Spotify when driving to and from school, during lunch, during class with my students (when appropriate, of course), when working out, and when completing my own homework or lesson planning. In thinking about my TikTok usage, I was surprised at just how much time I spend on the app. Recently, I have taken to using TikTok as a way to give myself quick, 5 minute breaks from tasks that I'm working on. In my head, I set my timer on my phone, 5 minutes goes by, the timer goes off, and I get right back to work. But sometimes (read: most times), the 5 minutes turns into 10 minutes, and 10 minutes turns into 15 minutes, and 15 minutes turns into me falling down the rabbit hole of procrastinating what I need to accomplish. 

Time to Unplug!

According to the Screen Time function, I average 3 hours and 27 minutes of screen time per day. While this seems like a large amount of time, considering I don't often use my phone while at work, apparently this is not my highest daily average-- this figure is down 17% from last week, meaning that last week I averaged 4 hours and 3 minutes of screen time per day. Clearly, there is strong evidence that I need to put down my phone and do something to disconnect from my technology!

In doing some research, I found an article on the benefits of unplugging from social media. In the article, the author lays out six reasons to take a step back from social media and technology use, including improvements in mental health and relationships, opportunities for self-reflection, and improvements in sleep. With summer coming soon, I want to take the opportunity to limit my time spent on my phone and on social media. I think taking the time to really evaluate my usage has opened my eyes- it's time to step back and be present in the world around me!