Term Paper 1: Personal Media Usage

Media usage has changed drastically over the years with the rise of the digital era. Rather than consuming analog media such as magazines, newspapers, and even radio, most people today consume media digitally through their smartphones or computers. We communicate, entertain, and inform ourselves through our devices. We even have our education systems working symbiotically with digital technology. Almost every aspect of our daily lives is impacted by the digitization of our media consumption. 

This shift to digital media has also impacted the rate at which we consume content. Statista claims that, in America, the average person spends 8 hours a day consuming digital media, which is almost double the time that is spent consuming analog media. Think about how many analog tools and media have been manifested into the digital world. One example that comes to mind is music. Where music was once enjoyed through analog devices such as record players and radios, to name a few, it is now easily accessible through digital applications such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, etc. Another example is a thermostat. Where you once had to manually set the thermostat at the temperature you wanted, there is now a digital screen that you can tap to change the degrees. 

Even alarm clocks have switched from analog to digital with younger generations. In fact, my mornings begin with snoozing the blaring noise that comes from my phone at 7:30 a.m. every day. When I eventually surrender to my alarm and wake up, I start my day by scrolling on X. 

After about 15 minutes of mindlessly browsing my For You tab, I get up to take my dog outside and get ready for the day. I usually play music from my phone while I am getting ready. Around 8:30 a.m., I say goodbye to my dog and get in my car. The first thing that I do as soon as I sit in the driver’s seat is connect my phone to Apple Carplay to continue playing music on the way to work. 

At work, I mostly stay off of my phone, other than occasionally answering text messages. After lunch, I head to campus, once again playing music from my phone. As soon as I park my car, I sit for about 10-15 minutes browsing various social media apps, most notably X and TikTok. This is when I usually check the Trending tab on X to catch up on all of the most recent happenings around the world. 

As soon as I get to class, I open up my laptop to access assignments through Blackboard and other websites. I also, once again, scroll through social media apps on my phone while I wait for class to start. During class, I stay off of my phone for the most part because I prefer to use my laptop for educational purposes instead. 

After class, I listen to music from Apple Carplay on the way home. As soon as I get home and take care of my dog, I usually end up scrolling on TikTok for about an hour. The rest of my night is spent either working on assignments for class, watching television, or looking at social media. I would say, based on my average screen time on my phone, probably 30 minutes of that is spent on classroom use daily. Most of this comes from using the Safari app to look something up or the Blackboard app to check assignments. I would say that I use my laptop about 3 hours a day for educational purposes. 

This is a photo of my average screen time from the past few days. A majority of my time is spent on social media apps, with TikTok reigning in as number one.

In the past month, I have been able to get my average screen time down by almost 3 hours by downloading an app called Opal that blocks distracting apps for a certain period of time. I’ve noticed that, despite how small of a change 3 hours is, this decrease in screen time has had a positive impact on my life. I feel more focused and grounded when I am not mindlessly scrolling on my phone, and I feel like I have more time in the day than I did before. This decrease in screen time has allowed me to allot more time to focus on my academic life, rather than procrastinate with my phone. In my personal life, I feel like I am able to create better habits for myself, specifically with sleeping, and that I am also able to pursue my hobbies outside of media consumption. 

This is a screenshot that I took from the Opal app, which analyzed the data from my screen time and calculated that I will spend 40 years of my life on my phone if my habits do not change.

Digital media is an incredible feat that allows us to find information at the tips of our fingers, but we must also be careful when it comes to the amount of time that we are spending consuming that media. Being able to balance media consumption with other aspects of life is extremely important in making sure that you are experiencing the world outside of social media.