For this blog, I am required to speak about how I use technology in my day to day life. I realized that technology UNFORTUNATELY takes up most of my day. I tend to have alot of free time nowadays due to less course load this semester. As a result, my desire to go on social media takes over. I spend alot of my time on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. I would say that I spent 0% of productive time on TikTok. What I mean my productive time is time allocated to academic pursuits or financial pursuits. All my time on TikTok goes to leisure and mindless scrolling. Furthermore, Instagram is a source I mostly spend on leisure however perhaps 20% of my time goes into productivity. Sometimes I would follow pages which would help me academically such as essay writing techniques and/or math equations. Instagram reels play an important role in this regard. When it comes to YouTube, I would say that I spend the least amount of time on YouTube. The interesting fact is that I spend 80% of my time on YouTube in productivity. I would watch “how to” videos when dealing with academic concepts. I would watch financial advice videos to help me become more of a responsible adult. Essentially, all of these apps cause me to mostly spend in leisure time rather than productivity.
In terms of websites, I would have to say that Google is the website I use on a regular basis. I use google 100% for productivity. I can not even recall of a time where I used google for leisure. That being said, there are many apps linked to google which enables me to be organized and productive. I utilized Gmail as my main source of email communication and Google calendar to plan events/coursework. I find that using Google calendar is a great way to manage my time as it keeps on giving me reminders. As a forgetful person, this is crucial for me as it keeps popping up on my phone notifications.
As mentioned earlier, TikTok and Instagram are apps that I use the most and tend to take away my productivity. There aren’t many strategies I have been able to produce as I lack alot of self-discipline and self control. It is even possible that I have a phone addiction and so I am really hurting in this regard. In the rarity, when I do get some inspiration to refrain from social media, I try to get more hobbies in my life. Currently, I am focusing on exercising regularly. Time spend exercising means less time on social media.
Finally, the way where I am most able to strike a balance from productive screen time and unproductive screen time is through the use of a laptop. When I use my phone, I loose control and waste time. When I use my laptop, it is always used for productive pursuits. Hence, the tools for using technology serves best for me in this regard.