Struggling with Social Apps
There is no doubt in my mind that I am addicted to my phone. I feel anxious when I do not have it in my hands or in my sight because I get a weird feeling that I might miss something. I can say with certainty that this feeling has amplified since the pandemic started and I find myself addicted to social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and even LinkedIn! In 2021, I want to be more mindful about my social media use and so I studied my behavior over two days to understand why I need to be in constant touch with the virtual world.
Bad Habits
This self-study over two days was eye-opening. I did not keep a regular interval for note taking, I took note of my habit whenever I opened a social media app on my phone. Currently, my app usage is quite excessive averaging at 4hours 41mins a day (over last week). The apps I use the most are Whatsapp, Instagram, and Facebook.
Over the last two days, I noted how often I use social apps as my day progresses and the behavior over time graph is shown below. A lot of my social app usage is interlinked with when my friends and family are awake in India. There is a twelve hour time difference between PST and IST, so I expected the time spent on social apps to be higher around the mornings and nights (shown below for the last two days and reinforced with the screen time snapshot from my phone over last week). I talk to my friends and parents on Whatsapp, update them about my life, play games with them on Snapchat or Messenger, share memes on Instagram and funny pictures on Snapchat. Additionally, my mornings are incomplete without seeing everybody’s Instagram stories. Over time the stories feature has taken the form of a “News” medium in my life — a way in which I can stay updated with my friends’ lives, the lives of celebrities quarantining in style and lives of people who I haven’t met in years and probably will never meet. What was surprising to me was how much time I wasted in between. What were the small peaks in the middle of the day and how had I not noticed this behavior before?
The Mystery of the Little Peaks
The little peaks are a result of a range of random factors most of which are in my control. The connection circle below represents all these factors that lead to me picking up my phone and ending up on a social app. Each color represents a loop. One loop stems from social pressure and the need to stay in touch with my friends and family which I already established leads to the big peaks. The major loop that is responsible for many of the little peaks stems from COVID itself. COVID has led to me (and everyone) spending a lot of time at home which not only leaves one with little options for entertainment, but also leads to random/super short breaks between classes, opportunities to multi-task (even when I should not be), and of-course, the constant feeling of hopelessness which necessitates the need for “pick me ups”, which in my case are cute dog/cat videos on Instagram. COVID has also led to me constantly looking for things to shop for online (another bad habit), and turning to home cooking — both of which require the use of social apps. Ultimately, these tiny peaks waste a lot of my time, leading to lower productivity, lack of sleep and the constant feeling of tiredness. Another interesting peak is the one after I workout in the evenings. After an intense internal debate, I realised that this peak is a result of a sense of achievement after I workout. I feel so proud of myself for completing a workout that I reward myself by spending extra time on my phone. I have also noticed a reduced attention span, which is aggravated my the bite sized videos I keep seeing on Instagram reels or stories, and TikTok. In these two days, I noticed I would scroll down from a video in less than 10 seconds. More loops can be seen below!
Digging Deeper into the Big Peaks
I felt that the big peaks are not just a habit or ritual, or simply peer pressure and thus thought it justified to dig a little deeper. As a result, I did actually find a deeper emotional reason for why this loop actually exists. The ultimate impact of social media addiction in my case, is low productivity and a constant feeling of dissatisfaction with my work. I realised that most of the time I am conversing with friends or my parents — I complain about this very feeling which is a feedback loop in itself because this leads to me using social apps as an escape and further increases my usage.
Experience and Take-aways
The experience of this excersise was eye-opening for me as it helped me understand myself a little more and realise that while most times there is no reason for me to be using a social media app, sometimes there is also a justified emotional reason for my behaviour. Maybe I should be kinder to myself and not let my screen time widget dictate my mood sometimes. Now that I have identified many factors that have led to lower productivity and a terrible sleep cycle, I can create an action plan of how I can actually achieve my 2021 goal!
A good way to do so would be deleting Instagram/Whatsapp from my phone after 12pm, so I can communicate with my close friends and family but reduce the mindless scrolling I do in the middle of the day to bring down my screen time and enhance productivity. Another way to reduce usage, would be designated ‘its okay’ times — I want to allow myself to play a game or two and spend some time on Instagram after working out so that I am able to find the will to maintain one of my very few good habits. I also noticed a feature on my iPhone that I was unaware of — I can set a time limit for each app per day, and also set a screen downtime for my phone. I plan on using these from tomorrow and seeing how that goes! I am also going to keep my iPad, laptop and phone away from my bed at night, so that I fall asleep (relatively) early. All in all, I am grateful for this excersise and I hope when I do the next one, it is about another one of my many bad habits!
