I tracked my behavior in 15 minute intervals over two days to perceive my use of social media.
While tracking my behavior over the two day period, I recognized what types of actions instigated my doom-scrolling behavior on TikTok.
On the weekday that I had a strict schedule for, I woke up, got ready, headed to Muay Thai practice, got home, showered, and then I did not have a rigid plan for myself.
At that point, I was tired and believed TikTok would wake me up.
I ended up spending 45 minutes on social media, then napping for an additional 30 minutes.
Afterward, I made breakfast and ate it. While I ate breakfast I watched more TikTok because I had a stressful decision to make and because I wanted entertainment while I ate.
I spent 45 minutes making and eating breakfast while on social media. I finished my food, did the dishes, and got back on social media because I knew I just completed something productive for myself, but I was also about to have to do more things that were productive for myself like planning my courses and making a stressful decision.
I spent 30 minutes making a stressful decision, 15 minutes on TikTok, and intermittently while I was planning my courses, if I hit a roadblock, I would go on TikTok for 5 minutes.
Each time I found a perfect class only for there to be some catch that made it unsuitable, I would feel overwhelmed and go to TikTok for a couple minutes. I spent 2 hours planning courses. Afterwards, I went to the gym for 2 hours. While I was at the gym, I only listened to music and interacted with people I knew at the gym for an hour and a half. For the last half hour, I was walking on the stairmaster and allowed myself time on TikTok for that.
After the gym, I picked up my friend to get lunch at a spot that was closing soon. I spent about an hour and a half with the trip included for this trip. I got home and showered.
I was still stressed out about the decision that I made earlier in the day, but I realized TikTok was not making me feel better, so I ended up doing some creative writing to cheer me up for an hour. After creative writing, I did some work for two hours and then I went to bed.
On the day that I did not have any structure, I immediately hopped on social media for an hour when I woke up, felt fatigued from scrolling, and decided to go to the gym.
It takes me thirty minutes to get ready for the gym, I go to the gym for two hours, I go home, and I shower.
After I shower, I fire up TikTok again while I make my breakfast, and it takes 45 minutes for me to make food and eat it while on TikTok.
I realized I had work to do, so I deliberately put myself in a space where I would be around others and therefore discouraged from going on social media. I did 3 hours of uninterrupted work, and by the time I got home, I had plans for an event that started in an hour.
I spent that hour on social media. I knew my friends would be late, so after that hour I got ready, and then they got to my house and we began hanging out. Since I was with my friends, I felt no need to use social media. We spent three hours together.
After they left, I immediately scrolled on TikTok for about 45 minutes and then went to bed.
It looks like I use social media for boredom, stress, and to continue feeling pleasure after completing a pleasurable activity like spending time with my friends.
Findings: I found that I use Tik Tok as an escape from boredom, stress, and lack of motivation. Responding to these feelings by using Tik Tok creates a negative feedback loop. Looking at my Connection Circle, I noted two feedback loops. One where doing work results in lack of concentration or boredom, which results in scrolling, which results in checking the time I spent scrolling, which results in me working more and the cycle continuing. Finally, when I am finished working, I accomplish my task, and as a reward, I watch more TikTok. The other feedback loop is having trouble concentrating, listening to music while I work, and then having even more trouble concentrating. This loop then flows into the previous loop to compound my Tik Tok usage.
If I were to repeat this habit tracking exercise, I would put an app on my phone that makes me wait for 10 seconds before I’m allowed to proceed to any social media, so I can become mindful of my mindless usage. The first time I tracked my behavior, I implemented this strategy and replaced Tik Tok usage with reading. It was tremendously successful, but I wanted to be able to show that this was a helpful exercise through the class, so I took off the limitation and allowed myself to mindlessly scroll for the purpose of this experiment.
