For this second Measuring Me assignment, I focused on my TikTok usage which is a prevalent aspect of my daily and digital life. I hoped to gain insights on the frequency and context of TikTok use with this four-day logging diary to potentially help myself become a more productive person and get more sleep. Additionally, it was interesting to see various psychological factors affecting my usage during the logging such as the Hawthorne Effect and feedback loops.
Methodology and Data Collection:
To track my TikTok usage, I set reminders to log my activity hourly over a period of four days. This involved noting the duration of each session by checking the screen time in my settings and contextual factors such as my physical, social, and emotional state. Additionally, for any hours that I potentially missed logging, I filled in gaps by looking through my phone’s screen time data at the end of the day.
The hourly check-ins, while a bit intrusive because of frequent logging, provided valuable insights into the behavioral patterns of my TikTok use as I was able to more quickly and accurately recall what I was doing right before using TikTok. However, because I felt mentally fatigued from the frequency of check-ins, there were times where my logs were less descriptive, demonstrating competing factors in the effectiveness of hourly check-ins.
Additionally, it is important to note that I only tracked my TikTok usage because it is one of my most frequently used apps even though Instagram Reels functions similarly. I decided not to track my Instagram screentime which is significantly lower than my TikTok usage and it is difficult to distinguish between scrolling through Instagram posts or stories and Reels which are in a more engaging and crafted video format similar to TikTok.
Influence of the Hawthorne Effect:
A notable observation during the assignment was the impact of the Hawthorne Effect. Because I was measuring my behavior and was very aware of the measurements and my TikTok usage throughout the day, I found myself sometimes opening TikTok and then immediately closing it because of guilt. I was influenced by the consciousness of being observed, even if it was myself. This self-monitoring inadvertently altered my natural usage patterns, making me more aware and affecting my typical engagement with the app.
Behavior Log:
Over the course of the study, I noticed:
- An increase in TikTok usage during extended periods of time when I was alone, particularly on weekends.
- The logs reflected a link between my feelings of boredom or loneliness and extended use of TikTok.
- The more I dreaded doing work near the end of the weekend, the more I used TikTok to distract myself before or during work sessions.
Total Usage Time Each Day:
- Thursday, 1/11/2024: 2 hours 2 minutes
- Friday, 1/12/2024: 39 minutes
- Saturday, 1/13/2024: 5 hours 49 minutes
- Sunday, 1/14/2024: 3 hours 56 minutes
- Monday, 1/15/2024: 6 hours 18 minutes
Daily Usage Breakdown:
Thursday, 1/11/2024
- 2-3 AM: 16 min, laying in bed, bored, can’t sleep.
- 3-4 AM: 23 min, laying in bed, bored, can’t sleep.
- 4-5 AM: 3 min, laying in bed, tired, intermittent sleep.
- 5-6 AM: 5 min, laying in bed, tired, intermittent sleep.
- 6-7 AM: 10 min secs, tired, unlocked phone.
- 7-8 AM: 47 secs, tired, unlocked phone.
- 8-9 AM: 20 secs, bored, habit, sitting at desk in dorm room, alone, felt guilty.
- 9-10 AM: 12 mins, bored, habit, single-use restroom, alone, stimulated.
- 10-11 AM: No TikTok usage.
- 11 AM – 12 PM: No TikTok usage.
- 12-1 PM: 6 mins, bored, computer frozen, sitting at my desk, alone, relaxed.
- 1-2 PM: 24 mins, bored, eating lunch in bed, habit, in my room, alone, relaxed.
- 2-3 PM: 13 mins, bored, laying in bed alone.
- 3-4 PM: 13 secs. Opened TikTok, immediately closed it out of guilt.
- 6-7 PM: 1 min. Opened TikTok out of temptation, shortly closed it out of guilt.
- 9-10 PM: 47 secs. Opened TikTok, immediately closed it out of guilt.
- 10-11 PM: 1 min. Opened TikTok, and shortly closed it out of guilt.
Friday, 1/12/2024
- 6-7 AM: 8 mins, tired, bored, just woken up in bed, habit, alone, amused.
- 7-8 AM: 5 mins, same as 6-7 AM.
- 9-10 AM: 5 mins.
- 1-2 PM: 6 mins, tired, bored, writing emails, alone, distracted.
- 2-3 PM: 10 mins, same as 1-2 PM.
- 3-4 PM: 19 secs. Opened TikTok, immediately closed it out of guilt.
- 7-8 PM: 1 min. Showed a friend a TikTok at dinner.
- 8-9 PM: 13 secs. Opened TikTok, immediately closed it out of guilt.
Saturday, 1/13/2024
- 3-4 AM: 7 mins, laying in bed, can’t sleep.
- 6-7 AM: 10 secs. Half-asleep and unlocked my phone, TikTok happened to be open.
- 7-8 AM: 20 secs. Half-asleep and unlocked my phone, TikTok happened to be open.
- 8-9 AM: 24 mins, woke up and stayed in bed.
- 9-10 AM: 40 mins, stayed in bed.
- 10-11 AM: 37 mins, bored, getting ready in the morning.
- 11am-12 PM: 22 mins, bored, grabbed lunch.
- 12-1 PM: 58 secs. Opened TikTok, closed it shortly out of guilt.
- 1-2 PM: 51 secs. Opened TikTok, closed it shortly out of guilt.
- 2-3 PM: 20 mins. Used TikTok at desk in between completing work tasks. Bored.
- 3-4 PM: 17 mins. Used TikTok at desk in between completing work tasks. Bored.
- 4-5 PM: 42 mins, bored, working at desk.
- 5-6 PM: 30 mins, bored, dinner alone.
- 7-8 PM: 21 mins, bored, working at desk.
- 8-9 PM: 50 mins, tired, in bed alone.
- 9-10 PM: 23 mins, bored, working at desk.
- 10-11 PM: 2 mins. Laying in bed, tired.
- 11 PM – 12 AM: 4 mins. Laying in bed, tired.
Sunday, 1/14/2024
- 12-1 AM: 3 mins, in bed, periodic work.
- 1-2 AM: 20 mins, in bed, can’t sleep.
- 2-3 AM: 56 mins, same as 1-2 AM.
- 6-7 AM: 16 secs. Half-asleep and unlocked my phone.
- 9-10 AM: 11 mins, woke up in bed and scrolled through TikTok before getting up.
- 10-11 AM: 11 mins, TikTok during morning routine.
- 12-1 PM: 5 mins.
- 2-3 PM: 30 secs.
- 3-4 PM: 8 mins.
- 4-5 PM: 1 min. Opened TikTok, closed it shortly out of guilt.
- 7-8 PM: 52 mins, laid in bed after dinner.
- 8-9 PM: 14 mins.
- 9-10 PM: 16 mins.
- 11 PM – 12 AM: 34 mins, in bed, tired.
Monday, 1/15/2024 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No School)
- 12-1 AM: 1 hr, in bed, awake.
- 1-2 AM: 57 mins, in bed, awake.
- 2-3 AM: 8 mins, same as 1-2 AM.
- 10-11 AM: 21 mins, woke up in bed.
- 11 AM – 12 PM: 37 mins, bored, getting ready.
- 12-1 PM: 29 mins, bored, working at desk.
- 1-2 PM: 44 mins, lunch alone, tired.
- 2-3 PM: 9 mins.
- 4-5 PM: 15 mins, post-meeting, tired.
- 5-6 PM: 52 mins, dinner alone, tired.
- 6-7 PM: 9 mins.
- 7-8 PM: 12 mins.
- 8-9 PM: 9 mins.
- 9-10 PM: 6 mins.
- 11 PM – 12 AM: 3 mins. Laying in bed, tired.
Models + Reflections on Experience:
Connection Circle:
This connection circle shows the complex dynamics between social isolation, boredom, guilt, and the Hawthorne Effect as they contribute to patterns of my TikTok usage. It also shows the resulting impacts on my mental health and sleep, along with the role of habitual behavior during transitional periods and using TikTok as a procrastination tool. The model illuminated connections between my emotional states, social or environmental settings, and specific times of day that influenced my TikTok usage.
Diving deeper into the connection circle, I’ve gained a better understanding of how these factors interact and shape my TikTok habits. The model demonstrates the cyclical nature of my actions and behaviors, showing how social isolation often leads to increased TikTok usage as a substitute for real interaction. Social isolation also increases feelings of boredom, compelling me to frequently open TikTok as an automatic response. Interestingly, being aware of my behavior due to Hawthorne causes a sense of guilt and closing the app prematurely. This guilt, coupled with the disrupted sleep patterns from late-night usage and my tendency to use TikTok to avoid work, paints a vivid picture of the psychological tug-of-war I experience daily.
Additionally, the model highlights the significant impact of these habits on my mental well-being and sleep quality. It’s clear that my TikTok usage during transition periods, such as waking up, going to bed, or moving from work to leisure, isn’t just a matter of passing time. It’s a habit or ritual that I’ve unconsciously developed to cope with underlying feelings of loneliness and a need for distraction. Recognizing this pattern is the first step towards breaking the cycle and finding healthier ways to manage my time and emotional needs. I hope that this insight from the connection circle will help me reshape my relationship with TikTok and, by extension, improve my overall quality of life.
Something else worth acknowledging is that for some factors in the connection circle, the cause and effect relationship is not necessarily clear, mirroring a chicken-and-the-egg problem. For example, is my social isolation causing my mental health to deteriorate, or is my deteriorating mental health causing my social isolation? For factors like this, the child and parent relationships are not distinct as either can cause the other.
Feedback Loop:
In the feedback loop I outlined, I combined a few similar factors from my connection circle, outlining the connections between social isolation, boredom, increased TikTok usage, and their effects in a cyclical form. Viewing the most important factors this way rather than focusing on drawing all possible connections between many factors helps narrow the scope of focus and identify the primary causes of my high TikTok usage.
Initially, feelings of social isolation or boredom drive me to use TikTok more frequently as a form of distraction or entertainment. This increased usage, especially during periods that should be reserved for sleep or productivity, disrupts my sleep patterns and decreases my work efficiency. As my sleep and productivity suffer, my mental health starts to deteriorate, characterized by heightened stress and anxiety. This worsening mental state further exacerbates isolation and boredom, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.
At the same time, there’s a separate but related loop involving the Hawthorne Effect and my emotional response to self-monitoring. The more I use TikTok, the more I become aware of my usage, especially knowing that I’m observing and logging this behavior for the assignment. This awareness causes guilt regarding my usage habits. In response, I often find myself closing the TikTok app prematurely, attempting to curb my usage. However, this doesn’t address the underlying reasons for my TikTok usage, such as lack of social connection, thus the cycle continues. This feedback loop underscores the complexity of my relationship with TikTok, revealing how various emotional and psychological factors intertwine and influence my digital behavior.
What I would do differently + Experience Continued:
Reflecting on my TikTok tracking for this assignment, I recognized that I need a more effective logging method. My hourly tracking approach, though insightful, often led to mental fatigue and superficial entries that lacked depth and nuance. Despite becoming more conscious of my usage due to the Hawthorne Effect, this method also didn’t fully uncover the deeper reasons behind my usage.
For future tracking, I would modify my approach so that rather than hourly logs, I’d focus on specific periods of the day, capturing the context and emotional triggers of each session more comprehensively. This would help me understand the broader impact of TikTok on my mental health and daily routine, moving beyond just recording usage frequency.
I’ve learned valuable lessons in understanding digital habits from this assignment and I hope to achieve a more mindful relationship with digital media based on these learnings. I was quite ashamed and felt guilty about my high TikTok usage as the weekend progressed. I believe part of the reason for this increase is that the longer I went on day after day without any meaningful social interactions, the more my mental health deteriorated and I gravitated toward distractions such as TikTok. There were also other contributing mental factors that I decided to not discuss in the assignment but this activity prompted me to think that perhaps I should seek out therapy instead of ignoring my mental health and scrolling through TikTok to escape.
