The Behaviour I Chose
For this assignment, I chose to track my short-form media usage, specifically Instagram. This felt like a natural (and slightly ironic) choice, given that my honors thesis focused on the cognitive and behavioural harms of short-form media, including its effects on sustained attention and impulsive engagement. While I’ve studied this behaviour extensively at a population level, I realized I rarely examine how it shows up in my own daily life as a system.
How I Measured It
I tracked my Instagram usage over four days (Thursday–Sunday) using Instagram’s built-in Screen Time feature. I logged:
- Total daily screen time
- Minutes spent on Instagram
- Proportion of screen time spent on Instagram
I logged data once per day, which felt was a good enough sample size because Instagram usage tends to cluster into short bursts rather than continuous use.
Raw Data Summary
- Thursday: 28 min Instagram / 6h 40m total screen time
- Friday: 27 min Instagram / 4h 6m total screen time
- Saturday: 10 min Instagram / 2h 39m total screen time
- Sunday: 46 min Instagram / 4h 24m total screen time
Even though my absolute Instagram usage stayed near my usual ~30 min/day average, the proportion of my screen time spent on Instagram varied a lot, especially on Sunday. This immediately pushed me to think in systems terms rather than raw totals.
Logging the Behaviour
Logging was easy—but interpreting the data was not. What stood out most was how Instagram use didn’t scale linearly with total screen time. On Saturday, my overall phone usage was low, and Instagram use almost disappeared. On Sunday, despite moderate total screen time, Instagram ballooned into a much larger share.
This reinforced something I already knew academically from my research but hadn’t fully internalized experientially: short-form media fills cognitive gaps, not time gaps. It emerges most strongly when I’m tired, avoiding effortful tasks, or transitioning between activities.
Key Learnings (Systems Perspective + Models)
- Instagram isn’t the root cause—it’s an emergent behaviour from fatigue, boredom, and low-friction access.
- My usage is governed by reinforcing feedback loops (scroll -> dopamine -> reduced motivation -> more scrolling).
- Total screen time alone is a misleading metric; context and state matter more than duration.
- When my day has structure and cognitive engagement, Instagram naturally loses its grip—no self-control required.
Connection Circle and Feedback Loop Models
What I’d Do Differently Next Time
Next time, I would:
- Log internal states (energy, stress, boredom) alongside usage to provide a more comprehensive overview!
- Track time of day rather than daily totals.
- Add a simple qualitative note like “why I opened the app”.
This would allow me to better map causality instead of just correlation, and identify higher-leverage intervention points within the system.
