Cell Phone Usage and Social Media
I don’t use my phone less since I stopped using all social media (with the exception of LinkedIn), I just use it for what I think is more productive means. Like the way it was originally intended to before greedy corporations sunk their teeth into it.
Last week I used my phone for an average of 4 hours and 9 minutes per day. That is a long time. I think the average person uses their phone for 5 - 6 hours per day, so I’m not far off. But, my top five most used apps last week, which is representative of most weeks, were:
Messages: 8 hours total, 1 hour 10 minutes per day
Mail: 3 hours total, 24 minutes per day
Clock: 2 hours total, 16 minutes per day (I’m always cooking so I’m always timing something)
Maps: 90 minutes total, 13 minutes per day
News: 90 minutes total, 13 minutes per day
My next five were Zoom (I had 3 video calls last week, which is 3 more than I’ve had in the last five years, so this one is an anomaly), Brave (my web browser), Notes, Spotify, Password Keeper.
I still touch my phone as much as I did before, but the difference is that by not having social media on my phone, I have to look for other things to do. And I try to make those other things productive. Like reading an article I saved. Organizing and cleaning up my inbox. Or writing something down that was on my mind.
And I think that’s maybe where people struggle. They think they’re trying to avoid their cell phones and when that doesn’t work they think they’ve failed. But really you’re trying to use your phone to be productive and having social media on your phone makes it really difficult.
It’s like keeping cookies in the house and telling yourself you’re not going to eat them. Has that ever worked? I know it doesn’t work in my house.