Habit being tracked – mindlessly scrolling through social media
Recently, my boyfriend showed me a video that spoke about how social media gives us a kick of dopamine, makes us addicted and how it is messing with our brain. Since then, I have been trying to be mindful of my social media use.
For this assignment, I tracked myself for 3 days (Jan 13, 14, and 15). I logged data whenever I picked up my phone to mindlessly scroll through social media (time is rounded to the nearest 5th minute). To ensure that I logged every time I opened social media, I downloaded an app that made my social media apps password protected, every time it prompted me for that pattern, I remembered why I put it in the first place and it served as a reminder for me to log.
Jan 13
10 am – Woke up and checked instagram before even getting out of bed
10:30 am – Checked tiktok as I brushed my teeth
12:35 pm – Checked instagram while I was on my way to lunch and was bored
1:55 pm – Scrolled through tiktok while waiting for food
3:20 pm – Scrolled through instagram on my way back home because I opened my phone for something else
5 pm – Scrolled though instagram while in bed
6:35 pm – Checked instagram while waiting for my boyfriend to tie his shoes
7:20 pm – Opened tiktok because I opened my phone to respond to a text
8:50pm – Scrolled through instagram while watching a lecture
11 pm – Checked instagram as I brushed my teeth
11:30 pm – Scrolled through tiktok before bed
Jan 14
10:30 am – Woke up and checked tiktok before even getting out of bed
11:30 am – Scrolled through tiktok while I got ready
1:25 pm – Opened instagram briefly while eating lunch
2:55 pm – Scrolled through tiktok in bed because I was bored
4:35 pm – Checked Facebook (idek why??) while watching TV
6:20 pm – Scrolled through instagram because I opened my phone to pick a call
8:35 pm – Scrolled through instagram while watching a movie
9:55 pm – Scrolled through instagram while watching a movie
12:30 am – Scrolled through tiktok before bed
Jan 15
10:15 am – Woke up and checked instagram before even getting out of bed
12:20 pm – Scrolled through instagram while watching TV
2:55 pm – Scrolled through tiktok to check something and spent more time than intended
3:45 pm – Opened tiktok cause I was bored
5:35 pm – Scrolled through instagram while exercising
7:15 pm – Scrolled through instagram while cooking
9:15 pm – Scrolled through tiktok while watching a movie
12 am – Scrolled through instagram before bed
Model 1
For this connection circle, I used three different colors (one for the habit I was tracking, one for the situation I was in, and one for the consequences/result of the situation I was in or the action I took). This helped me understand why and how I was feeling a certain way. It allowed me to understand where my feeling/emotions might be coming from — thus helping me work towards feeling better and having more control over myself in the future.
One can see that I usually ended up opening social media if I was distracted/not engaged and the result of that was that I ended up feeling terrible (both physically and mentally). It even resulted in me eating much unhealthier — not something that I had really been able to connect until I thought about this for this activity and observed myself.
Model 2
For this fishbone diagram, I separated my causes into three different categories (what I was doing, the environment I was in, and how I was feeling). These causes led to the effect of me mindlessly scrolling through social media. I had always believed that the only reason I check social media so much is because I am bored/distracted, but that was not completely accurate. Through deeper reflection and observing myself, I was able to see that there are many more causes and not just those 2.
Overall insights
Observing myself was really interesting and helped me gain a much deeper insight into my mindless use of social media and its multiple effects on me. I believe that with each passing day, my mindless use of social media decreased a little (can also be seen in my logging). I feel this was because I was increasingly aware of what I was doing and because I was logging it, I felt a sense of responsibility. But it is easy to reactivate habit memories, especially because I just did logging for 3 days — I feel like I fell into my older patterns again today. But armed with the knowledge I gained from this activity, I do feel like I have more control than earlier. Additionally, I believe the password protection I had created in order to remember logging acted as friction and helped further reduce my use. In the future, I would avoid doing that in order to get more accurate logging. I will find a different way to remember to log. Reflecting on my logging, in the future, I would also log how I felt immediately after my mindless use of social media or what I did right after to help the reader understand it better.
