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Always On: A Self Reflection by Aayush Sanghrajka

My morning routine starts out with my phone alarm ringing in my bed, my laptop next to me and a 15 minute session to “catch up” with what happened while I was asleep. After perusing Instagram, Snapchat, iMessage, Groupme, ESPN Facebook, Twitter, and Email (whew!) I get up, take a shower while listening to music then get changed while watching news on YouTube. The whole process from start to finish takes about 45 minutes, all of which I am attached to my phone (aside from the shower). While on one hand checking in with my various forms of media can be a great way to stay up to date, recent studies have show that starting your day by checking social media can make you less proactive and overall generate more anxiety. (Link) In order to test these findings for myself, I spent the past 3 days by turning off my phone before I sleep and not turning it on until I’m out the door. In order to decrease the amount of screen time, I wanted to see if not waking up with my phone would actually lead to more general happiness and productivity. What I found was that I was much more focused on the small tasks of brushing my teeth, dressing myself and thinking about what I needed to accomplish that day rather than retroactively thinking about all the things I missed during the night. The simple shift from retroactive thinking to forward thinking helped me feel more primed and excited for the day. While there may be a level of confirmation bias, I also felt that my sleep quality was much better when I disconnected than when I was sleeping with my laptop and phone in my bed. Falling asleep naturally was much more peaceful than falling asleep to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That fight to keep my eyes open to watch the episode was not worth sacrificing a peaceful nights sleep. Moreover, after analyzing my sleep habits and morning routine, I have realized that while media can be extremely informative and exceptionally entertaining, it has also crept into my ability to be a high-functioning individual.

Beyond my morning and sleep routine, phones are consistently “always on”. I often find that I cannot leave my house without my phone, and feel a sense of growing anxiety if I am not around it. The fear of missing out (FOMO) is present when I don’t have my phone as it means that I am disconnected from the opportunity to experience something else. However, even when we as millennials are experiencing something, I have noticed that we often find the need to document it. For example, a dinner with friends is often a group with phones, texting or on Instagram; a concert is really just a Snapchat-fest because if you didn’t post it to social media, did you even go? While we often predict that the future will involve chipping ourselves in shows like Black Mirror, I would argue that we are already chipped in the sense that our phones are just in our pockets rather than our skin. This idea that phones are always on is redefining what it means to live in the moment. While I think that I am very conscious of my phone usage in group settings, (turning off my phone while at dinner, etc.) I still find myself checking my phone while studying, in an elevator, bored, or at a party. The ability to go into another world with your phone has, in my opinion, limited our abilities to actually have face to face conversation with others. Additionally, in my experience, I have found that individuals are very different on social media than who they really are, and I am no exception. Now, individuals have a publicly facing persona and their true self. This delineation scares me, as it is changing what it means to interact as humans.

Moreover, while I am aware of all of the benefits that media has, I am worried about how deep I am connected with technology. Between sleeping with my devices, noticing that individuals have to constantly share content and having dual personalities, I am trying to make measures to limit my media consumption. Through using screen time limiters, intentionally leaving my phone at home and creating a nightly that does not involve my phone, I hope to be a healthier consumer of media.