My Day Offline
I have often heard strong sentiments regarding millennials and their excessive use of social media. For example, my grandparents once pointed out they felt I was not “present” during a conversation because I was scrolling through social media on my phone. I used to think that such opinions came from older generations, ones that did not understand the importance and attraction of social platforms in a highly digitized age. However, I was not sure how much time I was personally spending on social media. I decided to do an observation of my own to see how social media usage was affecting my life and productivity.
The first thing I had to do was figure out how much time I was spending on social media applications. Thankfully, Apple iPhones have recently come out with new technology that tracks how much you use your phone per day and how much time you spend on each specific app. I was shocked to see my own statistics. I felt like I was wasting a huge amount of time and became concerned about how social media affected my productivity. As a result, I decided to challenge myself by going a full day without checking my social media accounts.
The morning of the challenge, I instinctively went on my phone to see what happened on Twitter while I was sleeping. As soon as the blue screen started to load, I remembered the goal I set for myself that day and closed the app. At that moment, I realized this one-day challenge would be more difficult than I initially thought. Determined to succeed, I replaced my social media usage with more important tasks, such as schoolwork and house chores. This made it easier to spend my day offline and worked wonders for my productivity.
I got to campus an hour before my class started. It would’ve been easy to kill an hour scrolling through Instagram or Facebook, but instead I used that time to pull out my planner and map out the rest of my week. By doing so, I realized I had an assignment deadline and exam quickly sneaking up on me. Mapping out my week allowed me to plan effectively and prevent rushing as I completed my schoolwork, something that would not have happened if that hour was spent on social media. Arriving at my lecture hall, I noticed many of my peers were on their phones checking social media. Instead of following the crowd, I once again opted for something more productive: I set up my notes for the class and felt ready to begin the lesson. It was already clear to me that social media was indeed a huge distraction for me and spending less time on it could greatly increase my productivity.
For the remainder of the one-day challenge, I kept replacing social media with healthy and productive activities: I had more time to make a nutritious dinner, I finished my house chores and homework instead of putting them off to the weekend, and I went to the gym earlier than I normally would. These small changes not only increased my productivity but also made me feel better about my personal habits.
Even though this challenge only lasted 24 hours, it had long-term effects because it made me realize how much time I was wasting. Since my one-day challenge, I have monitored my social media usage and substantially decreased my screen time. I learned to take a step back from others’ online life to focus on my real life in the off-line world; the tweets, photos, and statuses will still be there when I have free time, but first I can do something I want or need to do offline. I’m slowly but continually decreasing my time online and it’s changing my day to day life by improving my productivity. I also have more time to make connections with my friends and family, in person, by listening more attentively and spending more quality time in their presence. Spending a day offline is something many people can benefit from — I recommend you try it so you can see first-hand how your productivity improves.
Francesca Alonzi has been a member of the Interactive Measurement Group since Spring 2019. Francesca is working towards a degree in Psychology and Criminal Justice and hopes to graduate by Spring of 2022. She is currently interested in the field of forensic psychology, but is open to other fields and opportunities as she learns along the way.