How do I spend my time?

 

How does one spend their time on the internet? Is it for personal or professional use? I had to map my internet and app usage. I was surprised by some of the results, but there were some results that I was not at all surprised about. While looking through my phone for the information I was shocked at how much time I just spent on my phone in general throughout the day. According to my phone I spend around five to six hours a day on it. Is that time being spent productivly or is it mindless scrolling through the virus apps that I have? 

By the numbers

I was able to find some interesting numbers on cell phone usage by millennials, which is what I would fall into. Millennials spend an average of 5.7 hours a day on their phones. It turns out, that I am a typical millennial in that regard with my five to six hours a day. Millennials use their phones more than any other generation. For more numbers and statistics about phone usage for millennials follow this link Phones.

Personally, what does my usage look like?

When I had to go through my phone and write down all the apps I used and how often I used them, it was shocking. With everything I do in a day, depending on the day, how do I find the time to spend on the low end five hours a day on my phone? I have a full-time job that I am not able to have my phone out for, I am in a master's program, I have a six-year-old; it was eye opening to see just how much I am on my phone. After I had all my apps listed, I went through and thought about how I used them and also what sort of user was I with those apps. That analysis led to the diagram below: 

 

Looking at the diagram there are four different quadrants: visitor, personal, professional, and resident. The professional quadrant is for apps used in my work or for school. The personal apps are ones that I tend to use at home, many have to do with shopping or streaming services. Resident apps are the ones that I use most often and have a big presence on, or from what my phone told me I use most of my time on. Visitor apps are ones that I go to for a specific reason and then I don't go to them again until I need them. Those could also be apps that maybe I frequented before but now are not used nearly as much as before. For some more clarification on the difference between visitor and resident look at the chart below. 

 

Have I learned anything... Can I change?

I spend too much time on my phone utilizing apps that give minimal benefit other than it makes me happy. The amount of time spent on my phone instead of doing other things that could be more productive is shocking to say the least. Based on what my phone told me, I spend most of the time on my phone at night between 9pm and midnight. That is when my tiny human has gone to bed, and I can relax and not have to think for a few hours. That is how people, me included, get sucked into the apps. I do not have to think about anything other than moving my finger on occasion to change the video, after having made so many decisions in a day it's great to not have to make any more when I get home and sit on the couch. 

I want to be better and use technology in a better way than mind numbing scrolling. I do not want to spend all my free time on my phone. I believe I can change, but I am pretty self-aware it is not going to be over night. I won't go from my five hours a day to two hours, I need to be more realistic than that. If I can slowly lessen the amount of time spent on my phone by 10 minutes every few days than I should be able to wean myself off of it and use it for the tool it was meant to be and not have it use me.