At the start of 2021, I set out several goals for myself. One of them was to become more mindful with eating and what it was I ate. I downloaded Noom and one of the terms I learned was "fog eating," where you eat without awareness. I decided to track my screen time for the past three days and I think I also am guilty of fog scrolling, where I'm on my phone without awareness. I already had a feeling this was true, but looking at the actual breakdown of my time was proof that something deeper was happening.
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My iPhone has a Screen Time feature which allowed me to complete this tracking. I can also set up app limits within the feature, which I have before, but I frequently ignore. Starting on Wednesday, April 21st, I spent six hours and fifty minutes on my phone. I had a busy day at school on Wednesday, and my time online didn't start to really go up until about 3 to 4pm. I was home that day by 5pm as you can see by the larger spike at that time. When I get home I typically like to disconnect and scroll through Tik Tok or watch something on YouTube. The decrease in that day came from a migraine that I had throughout that day that was significantly worse by 7pm. For the rest of the night, I was on my phone a little since migraines cause sensitivity to light and sound. When I have a busy day, I'm typically on my phone for this amount of time, but as you can see, what's little to me takes up a significant amount of my time.
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On Thursday, April 22nd, I spent 8 hours and 28 minutes on my phone. I spent, again, a significant amount of time on YouTube and TikTok. A podcast I like to listen to also posts the same episode on YouTube to see the filming of it so I decided to watch and listen to it there both getting ready for and on my way to work. Tik Tok serves as a distraction for me, while Spotify served as the motivation I needed to finish assignments or any work I need to get done. The interesting app I used on Thursday was my Notes app from 3 to 4pm. I used the Notes app to draw on for a game I was playing during a meeting after school for I club I sponsor.
Finally, yesterday, Friday, April 23rd, I spent 8 hours and 39 minutes on my phone. At 6 in the morning, I had a very difficult time getting up so my Alarmy app was ringing for 35 minutes. During work, I like to have a lofi playlist on as I get work done during the morning (
this is my favorite at the moment). During my lunch break at 1pm, there was a larger spike where I was on Tik Tok again. Later on in the day, I was on Twitter for a large period of time. Yesterday was the season finale for two shows I watch and after each episode, I like to see what others are saying about it which turns into a binge.
The amount of time I spend on my phone is a reflection of how drastically my life has changed in the last year, which it did for many of us. My life, like that of many others, is now entirely online. My work, school, social life -- all of it, is through a screen. Even worse, because of how stressful my life has been, one of the distractions has been to be on my phone mindlessly. It's been a tough habit to break and especially so when I consider how often I use multiple screens at one time. Sometimes I'm scrolling through Twitter listening to music while watching something on TV. The results were important for me to see in order to make appropriate changes. Before, I would probably be ashamed of how often I use my phone. Now, I'm a little kinder to myself. I'm understanding of why I do what I do, while also realizing it's probably not the healthiest habit to have.
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