Term Paper 1 - Personal Media Usage

Gwen Gunnels

Professor Reppert

Mass Communication

September 3, 2020

Personal Media Usage 

    As someone born into an era full of media influence, I use a large amount of social media every day. As many people my age, I keep my iPhone with me at almost all hours of the day. I leave it near me when I sleep, I keep it in my pocket or purse throughout the day, or it is in my hand always available. If it is not near me, I can tell I am missing something. Although my cell phone is never far from reach, I do try to limit the amount of time I use it by spending time with my family or reading a book. However, like many people, I can spend hours of my day just sitting and staring at social media. 

    My day begins with me pressing "snooze" about five times on my alarm clock app. Unlike many of my friends, I do not lay in bed and check my phone immediately after I wake up. I let my eyes adjust to being awake by getting ready for the day, or on days I have nothing to do, by lying in bed until I am awake enough to check my phone. Once I am fully awake, I check my notifications. I usually have notifications from my Outlook email, Remind, Snapchat, Timehop, and The Weather Channel app. I get messages for school from either Remind or Outlook. These are usually the first messages I check every morning to be sure I am not missing any assignments. The next notifications I check are from Timehop and Snapchat. Timehop is an app where it takes dates and photos from all your social media platforms and shows what was posted on the anniversary of the post. The app also keeps up with how many days in a row you check the app through a "Timehop Streak." Currently, I have checked Timehop 1,105 days in a row. On Snapchat, I get notifications from my friend's group chat and I catch up on texting people that I may have been texting the day before. The Weather Channel app notifies me about the weather for the day every morning. 

    When it comes to my school work, I check Blackboard from either the app on my phone or on my laptop. I do not check Blackboard at a certain time during the day. I try to log on when I have time between my in-class classes and my virtual classes. This takes up a portion of my day because I like to get most of my work done as soon as possible. For classes that I take online, I spread my work throughout the week and spend about 3 hours a day on school work. This helps me with my time management throughout the week.

    When I am in my car, I connect my car to my phone’s Bluetooth and play music from my Amazon Music app. I play many different genres of music, and because my sister and I share an account, I usually play what she listens to. Sometimes I will just turn on XM radio when I am driving. I spend time in my car a few times a day and that is usually the only time I listen to music. 

    Throughout the day I get on other apps like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tiktok, and again, Snapchat. Below, I documented the hours I have spent on these apps this week and I included a photo of my daily average for the week. 

 

Instagram - 1h 34min

Twitter - 4min

Facebook: 48min

Pinterest: 1m 

TikTok: 9hrs 28min

Snapchat: 43min

 

As you can see, my screen time was down 16% from last week. I spend quite a bit of time on Instagram, however, according to my screen time, I spend an embarrassingly amount of time on TikTok. It is hard not to get trapped on the app for long periods of time. If I spread that time between Sunday through Wednesday, I spend an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes on TikTok per day, usually at night before I go to bed. On TikTok, I usually watch funny content. There are also accounts on TikTok that keep me informed on the news and other world events. The amount of time I spend on Facebook and Snapchat are pretty close. I usually use Facebook to keep up with my family. When It comes to texting my friends, I almost always use Snapchat instead of the text messaging app on my phone. For this week, I did not spend a large amount of time on Pinterest, however, I usually use it for book recommendations or to look at fashion trends. Although I have had Twitter for a while, I do not use it much. Currently, I will use it to see what is trending or see what my Professor posts for class. 

     I do not stream television shows or movies as much as I used to. When I do, however, I usually use Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, or Netflix. The times I do watch TV are with my family when we watch documentaries on Netflix or shows such as Law and Order on Amazon Prime Video. I get my news from the TV once and a while, but I usually get most of my news online.

    Although I use a lot of social media per day, I would not say I use an unhealthy amount. However, I should try to limit how much time I spend on apps such as TikTok or Instagram and try to be more productive throughout the day. Compared to my friends, I do not use apps such as Snapchat as much as they do. For example, some of my friends have a daily average of 5 hours on Snapchat compared to my 43 minutes. Not only does social media make our lives easier, but it keeps us informed and connected with our family and friends. Today, everyone is exposed to media and it is evident that it plays a big part in our day to day lives.