Jean M. Twenge’s article Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation suggests that people “didn’t have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones.” It’s a scary thought, and even though I grew up in a generation defined by CD players instead of touch screens, it’s increasingly hard to think about life before the iPhone.
By 2012, the number of Americans that owned smartphones eclipsed 50 percent, and the affects of that omnipresence are still being studied. There have been numerous studies linking smartphone usage with anxiety and depression, and even suicide. But as Lydia Denworth states in Social Media Has Not Destroyed a Generation, the nature of brand new technology means the ways we study their effects are also new, and can be flawed. It wasn’t long ago when parents were convinced television was going to rot their children’s brains, or turn them violent.
So how are we supposed to accurately monitor how smartphones are affecting us day to day, and in the long-term?
This week we were given the task of giving something relating to our smartphones. I know myself well enough to know there was no way I was giving up my entire phone, so I decided to consider what applications I spend the most time with and pick out one. My phone tracks my screen time usage, and it told me I spend most of my smartphone time on Twitter. I set out to stay off Twitter for five days, keep track of how often I go to open it, and what apps I chose to use in place of it. I also kept track of how I felt when I would go to open it, and why I seemed to be doing it.
Wednesday
The first day was definitely the hardest day, but that’s to be expected. I opened Twitter first thing in the morning, without even thinking. I realized that seems to be what I do first thing in the morning, because Twitter is where I usually get my news. I also seemed to have the urge to open Twitter after I did any long reading (reported articles, school reading, books, and the like) and needed a break. I started using Instagram to actively avoid using Twitter and found myself losing interest faster. I immediately found myself listening to more podcasts, which gave me the freedom to get up and move around, and get other tasks done.
Thursday
On Thursday I became more aware of my urge to open Twitter when I want to be distracted. I don’t know if I would call it mindless activity because that seems extreme, but it’s sort of a cruise control activity. I was on a FaceTime call with my best friend and had the TV on, and I realized I just reflexively went to open Twitter with very little intent. I was already looking at two different screens and I still felt the need to quickly check Twitter and see if I was missing anything.
Friday through Sunday
It got easier, thankfully, when I began actively thinking about how much time I seemed to be wasting. It helped that my friends and family were texting me more because it was the weekend and I could engage with those messages instead. I spent a lot of time on Saturday thinking about the reading from Deep Work this week, about living a happy, focused life. While I don’t really think I’m addicted to my phone, I do think I use it as a crutch for when I want to be distracted and it may not be the healthiest habit to want to be distracted all the time instead of working on things that require me to be focused.
By Sunday morning, the screen time tracker on my phone told me my Instagram usage increased quite a bit in the past week. I found it interesting that while I was still sinking a significant amount of time into the app, it didn’t hold my interest as much. I found myself using my phone less often, not feeling the need to check it because I couldn’t look at one part of it. I was spending more time with activities and media I felt more present in, like watching a movie on Saturday night.
Another interesting thing I found is how many times I opened the app, and what my phone data said versus what I had written down. On Wednesday I could have sworn I only accidentally opened the app four or five times, but it turns out I had gone to open it eighteen times. I found it interesting how blind I was to the habit and how it warped my sense of time.
I started thinking about the specific ways and reasons I use Twitter. I usually use Twitter for news. I like to think I follow a diverse enough group of people that I get a good mix of news and perspectives, so it feels like a valuable tool for gathering information about the world. I find a lot of articles I would have never thought to seek out myself. I like the small groups of people I follow that live tweet things I’m interested in, like sports and other topics I don’t usually talk about with my immediate friend group. It gives me a sense of community around things I’m interested in.
On the other hand, it was nice not reading all the petty fighting I usually allow myself to get sucked into. I think it’s important to read disagreements because conflict is part of life, and can lead to interesting resolutions, but I also don’t think it’s healthy to read that many toxic comments throughout a normal day.
Thinking about my experience versus what Twenge explored in Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation, I don’t think I’m any less or more depressed depending on how much I’m using an app. I do think I use social media as a crutch. I use Twitter as a break when I’m feeling overwhelmed and need to get out of my head for a second, instead of focusing on what is bothering me, because that’s work and work is hard. I use it as a quick distraction when I feel uncomfortable in a social situation. There’s also a chance, of course, that I don’t actively know exactly how it does or doesn’t depress me. Just look at what happened when I tried to count the number of times I opened the app.
Which, ultimately, is the main thing I want to take away from this week’s readings, and especially the exercise: being more mindful. It’s not a fatal flaw to sometimes feel the urge to put your brain on autopilot for a few minutes, particularly after involved work, long stretches of thinking or reading, or generally feeling the weight of life – especially during the pandemic. But there’s definitely something to be said for paying attention to all those little phone pick-ups, because they add up, and cutting them down could lead me to discover little pockets of available time throughout my day to use on activities that actually make me happy, instead of just comfortable.
Derakhshan, Hossein. “The Web We Have to Save.” Medium, Matter, 12 Sept. 2019, medium.com/matter/the-web-we-have-to-save-2eb1fe15a426.
Denworth, Lydia. “Social Media Has Not Destroyed a Generation.” Scientific American, 19 Nov. 2019, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/socialmedia- has-not-destroyed-a-generation/.
Newport, C. (2016). Chapter 3: Deep Work is Meaningful. In Deep Work (pp. 72–92). New York: Grand Central Publishing.
Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 19 Mar. 2018, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.
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