Technology plays a significant role in many people’s lives. I mainly use my iPhone on a daily basis in my life. I use my computer for school or work purposes, etc. When it comes to my daily life, I tend to use TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Netflix. I feel that these apps can slightly help you through your academic journey. TikTok and Instagram can be used for tutorials if you are finding difficulty navigating a certain app or website. Snapchat can also help you stay in contact with your classmates or group project partner, if needed.
I mainly rely on the calendar and notes app on my iPhone to stay organized and keep me on track. These apps help remind me of upcoming due dates or tasks that I need to do for the next day or week of class. I also rely on google docs, drive and slides to help save my assignment, coursework and presentation files. I find these apps to be extremely helpful for my personal life and school life.
I remember during my Grade 12 psychology class we did this experiment where we had to turn all our app notifications on and put our phone on our desk with the screen facing downwards for the whole class. The teacher told us to keep track of how many notifications we got, how many times we felt the urge to look at our phone but didn’t and how many times we looked at our phone after a notification went off. I found this interesting and a great way to learn how much our phone impacts our life and occupies our mind/concentration. The app that seems to distract me the most is snapchat. It distracts me the most because it is an app which I can keep in contact with my friends. A strategy that I find particularly effective is turning the app notifications off and keeping my phone as far away from me as possible.
During the day and at school is when I tend to use my phone less or when I am interacting with my family. During the night is when I go on my phone the most. I think my healthy relationship with technology is not attaching it to my family time and when I need to get work done. It is important to live, stay focused and be in the moment.
Hi Elyse, I completely agree that it is so important to stay focused in life and stay in the moment, which is harder said than done. It is very interesting to think about how much we rely on our phones every day. We use them for academics, keeping in touch with friends/family, and personal enjoyment. The extreme urge to look at notifications whenever your phone lights up when you are studying or working is crazy. Phones can be so distracting so easily and I love your strategy of keeping your phone away from you to eliminate that urge. I also try and use that strategy, I find that the best way is to put it in another room so that you cannot see the notifications at all.
Hi Elyse!
Thanks for sharing the psychology experiment you did, that was super interesting and inspired me to give that a try! I totally agree with you on putting your phone away during family time and needing to get work done! Those are the times where we can gain so much more by being in the moment 🙂