Last week, like many other students across the campus, I found myself drowning under the heavy pressure of assignments and midterms. While I have written extensively about the onset of my senioritis before, I have recently began to question one of my longest relationships — the inseparable one I have with my smartphone.
I love my phone, and we spend a lot of time together like any couple in a successful relationship, but the relationship seems to be spiraling downward into unhealthiness and a lack of productivity.
Sure, sometimes I read the news on my phone, and playing Pokemon Go has me walking and exploring locations off the campus in pursuit of virtual critters, but I would be remiss in denying that I spend an inordinate amount of time watching YouTube videos or checking Facebook posts, Snapchat stories and Instagram pictures. Heck, if you throw in Tumblr and Twitter, suddenly the sheer amount of social media accounts and apps one maintains seems overwhelming.
Is it possible to keep up with everything? How is everyone else able to balance such a tremendous load of information?
According to Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization, teens in 2015 spent nine hours a day on average consuming some form of media. Thinking about the alarming quantity of time I spend on social media apps, I realize I sometimes think of the time spent as an investment in friendship; somehow, the time I spend consuming media makes me a more caring friend. But if that is the case, does that mean the value of my friendship diminishes when I am not available to retweet or like everything my friends post? Surely our concepts of friendship have not deteriorated and transitioned to that extent, but what if they have? Besides sheer laziness, what else could explain why we waste large amounts of time on social media?
Of course this wasteful categorization is relative to the individual user. Perhaps you use your applications and media accounts for educational purposes or as essential ways to communicate. After all, most apps walk a fine line between work and leisure. However, I can’t help but feel the preponderance and proliferation of time-consuming apps in recent years has, for better or for worse, shifted our Information Age into an Entertainment Age. Yes, it is possible to disseminate vital information from our apps and social media and it is possible to multitask, but these capabilities are too far outweighed by the losses accrued from excessive and inappropriate use.
I’ve decided to cut back on my phone and media usage, but with my first round of midterms over, I suppose it can’t hurt to quickly check in with some of my friends on Facebook, right?
Max An is a senior physiology and neurobiology major. He can be reached at maxandbk@gmail.com.
