My Relationship With Technology
My ideas of what technology did for the world has completed shifted during the duration of this course. I used to believe that technology was only good and had a bad reputation because of bad people. However, I have learned that technology was made to be bad. It is an overly-addictive, habit creating, spying monster that has overtaken most humans' lives.
Am I Addicted to Technology?
I decided to turn on a setting on my iPhone called Screen Time. I went about my normal habits and at the end of the week, looked at my settings and it showed that I was on my phone for a total of 49 hours and 3 minutes. One week has 168 hours, I decided to do a little more math to see how much I was really wasting on my life. I take a total of 18 credits this semester which means I should be spending a total of 36 hours a week on schoolwork and 18 hours in class; totaling 54 hours for school. I get about 6 hours of sleep per night to equal 42 hours in a week. Also blocking out 7 hours a week for eating and 5 hours for my Resident Assistant position per week puts me at a total of 157 hours out of the week. Leaving me only 11 hours to be with my friends, talk with my family, workout, or anything else I would choose to do with my free time. If I was not using my phone for 49 hours in the week, I would have been able to get a lot more done than what I did.
With all this information, I would say that I am addicted to my phone and technology in general. The apps that I spent the most time are social media which has other consequences which were never thought of before.
Struggles of Social Media
Social media is extremely distracting towards college students in particular because of the accessibility and addiction. Most college students have their phones with them constantly and check it every couple of minutes. A study done concluded that college students check their phones
11 times a day at least. Not only is social media and the usage of phones a distraction to everyday life, but it also causes serious effects on mental health. During one of the most stressful times in a person's life when they're trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do; the distraction of social media is everywhere. The constant fear of missing out or
FOMO is something that all students deal with. Especially when one is sitting in Cottrell and doing homework and they see all their friends posting on Snapchat at a party, they are going to feel a certain sadness of not being at that party. This feeling can lead to
heightened anxiety and start generating beginning signs of depression.
Googling "Ava Sames"
I can confidently say that I have never Googled myself before taking this course. The first thing that comes up is my LinkedIn which is thankfully something good because I like to show up with something professional. However, the next 3 items on Google are my Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest - all social media sites. This does not make me as excited because there are more important things to my life than my personality online. Something I found interesting was the next item that appeared was my soccer ranking in high school. As a competitive athlete, you are always trying to be the best and it brought back a lot of memories from soccer. It was also fun to remember that I was ranked in the top 200 of high school women soccer players in all of New Jersey. The last item on the first page of Google is the Podcast that I created and produce. I was a little disappointed to see this so far down on the page because it is the thing that I put most of my effort into behind school. I decided to take a look at the photos because I think that could be a very important part of something an employer would look at. Something that was fascinating was my grandfather’s obituary from his passing last year. Some old projects from my first year at High Point and high school came up as well as some random people with similar names.
Privacy
A lot comes to mind when I think of the word privacy. In my opinion, privacy means keeping things to yourself and not letting anyone else know about it. However, it is clear that nothing you put on the Internet will ever be private. If you post something online, it is there forever. I never realized that until this project when I saw my Ask.fm from 6th grade. While everything I said when I was 13 was not the most polished, I thankfully had parents that monitored all of my online activity and would not let me post anything wrong or inappropriate. Having an online presence comes with a lot of responsibility especially at an age when you are competing for jobs. No privacy means that employers are able to check everything that you have ever posted or written. That is an extremely terrifying thought when you think something is only going out to your friends then it is able to be looked at by someone who can determine your future.
Overall
In conclusion, I have learned many things about myself and the internet. I have learned that I need to put my phone away and take a break sometimes. My online presence will never go away, and I have to own what I release to the world. Lastly, I can't get wrapped up in a 5.8-inch screen or my life is not going to be the best that it can be. Overall, I feel more connected to the internet and at the same time, I want to throw it all away. But that's the balance, right?
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