For Measuring Me #2, I decided to track how often I reached for my phone to open TikTok or Instagram, which are the two main apps where I fall into the habit of mindlessly scrolling. Over the course of two days, I wrote down each time I opened my phone to look at those apps, e.g. “11:40 — opened TikTok while waiting for fried rice to cook.” While I was tracking the data, it was eye-opening to realize just how often I reach for my phone as a source of mindless entertainment while I’m doing other things or waiting for something to finish, even if those things don’t take that long. For example, even taking 10 minutes to walk between classes or to dry my hair prompts me to open TikTok on my phone. I constructed two models, a connection circle and a reinforcing feedback loop, to model the behavior.
Something interesting I discovered while making the connection circle is how the convenience of my phone impacted me finding alternative options for entertainment, which also increased my tendency to mindlessly scroll (highlighted above). Since my phone was such a convenient source of entertainment, it made me less likely to seek out other forms of entertainment that required more effort or time, making me more dependent on mindlessly scrolling for my source of daily entertainment. Relatedly, for the reinforcing feedback loop, I noticed that not having enough ‘me’ time during the day increased my desire for entertainment, but since I’m reliant on my phone as a source of entertainment I end up mindlessly scrolling until late at night, which causes me to wake up later and consequently shorten the length of my day the next day, which ends up repeating the cycle.
One thing I learned from this experience is that it could be beneficial for me to look into other sources of daily entertainment that feel more meaningful to me, which could reduce dependency on my phone. If I were to do this study again, I would probably also keep track of the kind of content that comes up on these apps. Part of what makes apps like TikTok or Instagram so addicting is that they cater to the content that you’re interested in, so it might be helpful to know what kind of content tends to keep me on these apps for longer periods of time. It might also be beneficial to repeat the study over the course of a weekend instead, to see how the behavior changes once I’m given longer periods of free/idle time.
