My social media use

As posted on my blog a couple of weeks ago, I had a period where I was left with a dumbphone, since my smartphone was off for repair, this meant no internet-connectivity or social media apps whatsoever. This period made think about my daily use of social media, and how they affect my daily and social life. I therefore decided to cut down on my social media use, and try to be more aware of my surroundings, trying to push the urge for checking the different media, to the back of my head. This experience, and the following thoughts have obviously influenced my media use in the past weeks, and naturally the amount of data gathered in my 48 hour tracking period. Nonetheless I have been tracking myself for 48 consecutive hours during a weekend, trying to note down every single encounter with social media, how long it lasted, on which platform it happened and very important; the purpose.

After looking through the small notes I made, and watching the screen capture of my social media routine, I’ve come to different discoveries regarding my social media use. The following section contains some of my observations and my thoughts regarding what happened and why, presenting a type of overview on observations, along with a reflection on my social media use.

When I look through the notes I find it quite obvious that the tracking happened during a weekend, where my use of social media is somewhat different from my use on a daily basis. I have more time to do the stuff I want, which is reflected in my visit to a lot of different forums, where I gather different types of knowledge not connected to my education, but instead to the things I’m interested in such as; cars, games, mobile phones and soccer. Counting the different encounters, I can see that I have visited four different forums (two of them several times), in a total of three hours. In this time I have only posted twice, but been reading countless of threads. Some of these threads have a lot of discussing going on, making me check them regularly for updates, just to keep myself informed. The more ‘traditional’/popular social media as Facebook and Twitter are checked a couple of times a day, not really with a particular purpose, but just to either make me feel updated on the people I know, or to kill time going to the bathroom or waiting on my girlfriend while she tries out new clothes in, what seems like, every single shop in Aarhus. Only one time did I go to Facebook with a real purpose; to coordinate with my BookClub on the readings, everything else I’ve noted down, seems to be ‘stuffing’ throughout my day.
What surprises me the most, is that I’m really passive in my social media use! I love reading and keeping up with a lot of different things and people, but I’m not contributing with anything myself. During the 48 hours I threw in a single ‘Like’ on Facebook and favorited one tweet, the rest of my time on these medias was just information gathering, and from my point of view, my feed is really not that interesting! I seems like my use of social media is more of a keeping up with the world around me, and the feeling that I don’t wan to miss out on everything, I want to know what is happening, and not too late, to feel left out. Until recently I wouldn’t have been able to categorize myself and my use, but after reading most of Howard Rheingold’s; Smart Mobs, I’ve found out, that I’m a ‘free-rider’. This means I want all the benefits, but I am not providing anything in return. I really don’t see myself as such a kind of person, but my use and data speaks for itself, this is what I am in the virtual world.

There is not a long time until we are doing the social media fast, but to me, it would sound more interesting, if it was the opposite! – If I was forced to contribute, and take part in the social medias I use. By forcing myself to find things interesting enough to be ‘shareable’ and make decisions about which would do me and my social network the most good, would, I think, change my view and use of social media. 

Tracking started!

Just to let you know; I've started my media tracking today!

My thought was to start out tomorrow, and have both a weekend-day as well as a regular-day, but as things have turned out, it is more suitable to the tracking today and tomorrow.

I've started out by doing a scheme in my notebook for quick noting, and doing a screen-capture / think-aloud video of my 'morning-routine'.

When I'm done, I'll be posting the most important findings from my notes onto the blog.

Have a nice weekend!

Tracking my media use

We have been assigned to do some thoughts regarding how we will track our media use for a 48-hour period, and do a so called 'tracking plan', of how we are actually going to conduct our tracking of ourselves.
This post is about how I am going to track my media use, and what what I have in mind, would be the outcome that I, in a later post, will be talking about in a video post, before I proceed to try out a media-fast, which will also be described in a video (cool right?)

To track myself and my use, I have a whole lot of different (some more or less crazy) ideas, that, in my mind, could be useful and produce an outcome worth of analysing.
Ideas include; Strapping on a GoPro camera, installing video-capture software recording my every move on social media sites, installing a video-capture app on my smartphone, doing a spreadsheet noting everything with exceptional detail or simply just using a notebook to take small, but extensive notes.
To be fair, not all of these ideas would give me a useful outcome, and i have therefore decided to stick with a the more conservative options, and my idea is to spice it up, by doing some screen-capture!
So basically what I plan to do is;

• Pick a 48hour period suitable for tracking
• Sharpen a pen, preparing to note down all my social media encounters in this period. This will include e.g. Facebook, Twitter, forums and blogs)
• Notes will be taken in my small notebook, noting down time of day, the social media, platform, duration and most importantly; purpose! (I will be noting down both laptop and smartphone use, making no distinction, other than platform)
• I will screen-capture my 'morning-ritual', where I do a brief check of my different social media relations

Hopefully this will provide some useful material, to reflect upon in the video!

When I know when this whole thing is about to happen, I will let you know. (Since the notes should be posted on the evening of october 25th, I'm rather limited in choosing the period)

I'm ba-ack!

Bottom line, I have sent my phone off for repair today, and I'm actually looking forward to a weekend, as they were prior to the smarthpone invasion, without any 'interruptions' from other peoples statuses or check-ins in my pocket - It will be interesting to see how I feel about this in a couple of days..

I've just been to the PostOffice to pick up my phone, coming back from repair, and there wouldn't be a better time to reflect on the last couple of days, than just before turning the phone back on, right?

Okay, most important finding first; the first day I was so restless! I reached in my pocket all the time, and felt kind of naked without the rather large phone in there. Sometimes I took out my 'new' Nokia dumbphone, just to unlock and lock it again, since it is capable of nothing, but I just had to check and do something! (Kind of frightening?!) But quickly, after the first day, I got used to not pulling out the phone to check everything all the time, and it was actually kind of liberating! Unbelievably quick I went from checking everything, all the time, to just check the different media once or twice a day (this was during the weekend, so I wasn't sitting in front of my computer all the time, but anyway). Yesterday and today I have been checking roughly three-four times a day, and the interesting part is, due to my 'limited' use throughout the day, I'm checking everything in large chunks, instead of all this small-use I usually do.

Overall the weekend was a success! An interesting thing though, was that I was much more aware of my girlfriends use of her smartphone. I don't know if it was because I was missing checking my own, but every time she used her phone, I was sort of aware of her sitting with her phone, using it. I found the use interesting, not the actual content, but which medias she was checking, and why. I could feel her presence decreasing every time she took out her phone, and it was like the whole mood in the room changed, when she used her phone, or when I occasionally took out my iPad.

I would say that being without my smartphone for a couple of days has been quite healthy, and I believe that I'll be much more aware of my use, and especially my presence to the people around me! I noticed a personal change, when not being able to check my phone, and to some degree I found it disturbing when people around me, took out their phones, when in a conversation, "just to check". This experience has made me take a step back, and see others use, and compare it to my own use, and have been quite and eye-opener! (of the more unpleasant kind..)

My Social Media use

This post is a combination of brain dumps and thoughts for the last couple of days. The purpose is to try and map out hoe I use the different social media I am connected to, on a daily basis.

It all started with the need for my smartphone to be sent to repair, it wasn't functioning as it should, but as the gadget-freak I am,  I was in a huge dilemma! And the one hand I would very much like for my phone to function as it should, but on the other I would not like to be without it for maybe two-three weeks! - And in the meantime be stuck with a 'dumbphone' that has absolutely no features except for calling and texting (you know, features that are the actual main point of having a phone..). These thoughts led me to the conclusion that I should start being more aware of what I actually use my phone for, and if my concerns actually had something to be grounded in.

I started out just trying to be more aware on when I pulled out - which situations would call for the use of social media on a daily basis. This wasn't supposed to be a big well documented thing, more sort of a making-myself-aware kind of thing, where I would try to be more focused on my used, and the actual use, instead of just using away.
Some of the situations I could pinpoint after just a few hours was; when I go to the toilet and when I'm watching television. The first situation constitutes a nice break, and here I am able to check how everything is on my social networks, without anyone watching what I am doing on my phone, to myself I think this is pretty common, and a way of using the 'alone-time' for something interesting (since there really aren't many other possibilities in a bathroom..). The other situation is some kind of strange, as I am already engaged in an activity; the tv watching, but here I often feel the urge to check the phone, simply because whatever I am watching, bores me. The strange thing is, that I can be sitting in my couch with my girlfriend watching a show, and still feel the urge to check if there is something interesting going on. There is no particular purpose in checking the different streams, I'm just checking, to check.. And here comes another, to me, interesting bit; I am very dull on social media! Yes, there, I said it. By being just a little aware of my use, I noticed that I rarely do anything on the different social media platforms, I just check, and read. Occasionally I throw in a like to a picture or a funny comment, but in the last week, I have done that roughly two-three times! Status-updates or tweets? None. Zero. Nada. Zip. This was quite confusing for me to discover, since I prior to this, saw myself as an active member, and user, of the most common social media platforms, but in reality I am, most certainly, not. At least not from the point where contributing is a requirement for being an active user, and really, isn't that what social media is about?

Bottom line, I have sent my phone off for repair today, and I'm actually looking forward to a weekend, as they were prior to the smarthpone invasion, without any 'interruptions' from other peoples statuses or check-ins in my pocket - It will be interesting to see how I feel about this in a couple of days..

Field-notes from Netto

Thesee notes are from a small 15-minute field session, with the purpose of getting experience with doing field-notes. The session takes place at a smaller mall in the northern of Aarhus, just opposite a smaller grocery store, Netto.

General observations:
A lot of people at this particular time. All seems to be in a hurry, and the mood is tight with all the stress surrounding the store, and everyone is stepping and waiting for their turn in the queue, to get out of the store, as quickly as possible. People seems to be buying a lot, and there is a lot of packing going on, with people putting groceries in bags and all kinds of purses and bags.
There seems to be very little, if any, kind of communication between the cashier and the customers, almost everyone is just putting their credit card in the terminal, waiting to hit the green button, to leave the store. One of the registers had a new employee, and people in this line seemed kind of frustrated, and despairing,

Situation 1:
A father with his child daughter. The father is wearing working-clothes, and the daughter has a very bright colored jacket on. While the cashier is registering the items, the father is standing in from of the register waiting, looking at every single item scanned. The daughter is going to the end of the belt, to pick up the registered items, and put them in a bag. The packing of the bags seems to be very challenging for her. The father pays is waving with his credit card until the cashier is ready, and after paying the cashier, smiling, he joins the daughter packing up the bought items. While packing the bags, the daughter is imitating the father, packing her bag in the exact same way. He helps her with some of the larger items. The daughter tries to carry her bag, but the father takes it, leaving her with only a small item, for her to carry.

Situation 2:
A young man is standing in the line with the new employee. Everything seems to be processing in a very slow pace, and the man is rocking on his heels, awaiting the the cashier to register the few items he has placed on the belt. After the registering of the last item, the man is watching, and waiting, for all of the items go to the end of the belt, before proceeding to pay by credit card. He packs up a few of the items in his backpack, and walks out of the store with the rest in his hands. While leaving the store, he hands over a single item to his friend, who is waiting outside the store.

Journal (thoughts on the session)
As quite new in the world of ethnography, it was some kind of challenging to do the observation. It is hard to know what to look for, and just observing different situations while judging if this particular situation contained enough to be mentioned and written down. I started by just watching the whole scenery, and the people within, to be able to have an understanding of the situation, and how everything was happening. By luck I found a table to sit by, and not have too much focus on myself as a person while observing. This was definitely a plus, and helped me retain my focus on the situation, rather than focusing on keeping myself out of the situation. This type of behavior would be termed by Spradley as a nonparticipation.

As a note to myself, and my forthcoming field-session, I think I should have some kind of focus prior to going to the site, and have something particular to look for, instead of just people's purchases in a store. It could be things like, their behavior when paying or in the queue or something completely different! But to have a more clear focus, would be very helpful. I think.

Brain dump #1 - In class assignment

This is my first attempt to do a brain dump. As this is an exercise the quality of this note may lack, but as it is supposed to be a directly dump of what I was thinking at the moment, it should be considered as a look inside my head at the particular moment/situation.

In class assignment: The last time i engaged in social media of any sorts, mostly something meaningful..

I've a lot of social media encounters along my day, most of them aren't meaningful in any way, as they a primarily ways of using or spending my time, or just out of pure boredom, and because I have nothing better to do.. Yet sometimes I 'dig' into my different media, e.g. when trying to find a particular person (not necessarily stalking!) or getting updates from around the world. Most of my interactions are very superficial, just checking to see if there should be any news from my friends, scrolling and scrolling, just to stop if something seems interesting, even though I don't really read everything while scrolling - If something pops out from the crowd, or just my the look of it seems interesting I stop, else I quit the app and continue doing whatever I was doing for the next five minutes, until I have to check again.
This can continue in an almost endless way, and from my own perspective it isn't very productive or even interesting, it's plain simply to kill time, when the TV is of no interest or when it's commercial time!

I think I should be more aware of my habits in this regard, sometimes it feels like checking Facebook and Twitter is the most natural thing to do, all.the.time. This can't be very healthy, and for the purpose of nothing, is seems some kind of ridiculous as I'm sitting here writing this.

In my opinion social media can be used for a lot of different, some more than others, interesting things. But very often it seems to be used only for the purpose of wasting/killing time, rather than actually having a meaningful purpose. But as I'm thinking about it, I had a reason to use Facebook the other day! In the Digital Identities course we've been assigned to do a Book Club thing, this means that we're supposed to read to books in a group, being able to present them afterwards. These groups is, of course, consisting of people from the course, and since I don't have any prior relations to a lot of the people attending the course, I find Facebook to be an excellent tool to get in touch, and arrange meetings. This meant I had to find the members of my Book Club group and set up a meeting. I did start out by doing a group on Facebook, thinking that would be the way to go; we could share a message board/wall, and when people joined, we could all come to an agreement. The idea kind of backfired, since this particular use-cased required that I had befriended all the persons I wanted to join my group, prior to actually adding them - Irritating!
Nevertheless I added the other persons to my 'friend' list, even though I by this time wouldn't consider them as 'friends', as we have just started to get to know each other, and that I'd normally wouldn't add people without getting to know them first. This is my idea of personal defense, as I'm sure to only let people who is related to my in a given, but reasonable way, before letting them in beyond the walls of my personal world. To be honest I really don't understand all the fuzz about having hundreds and thousands of friends on a site like Facebook, in my opinion these can't be actual and real friends? In this terminology 'friend' has become a person that you are, and maybe not even, familiar with, which is making the whole 'friend'-thing misunderstood. On LinkedIn you have connections and on Twitter you have followers, these terms are reasonable and sound. You connect with people you have worked with, or want to work with, and follow people interesting or somehow else worth of following, but that doesn't make you friends! But that is how Facebook works, and I can just sit here wondering about the term.. Friends.. What are friends, or our definition of friends, really? Is there a clear difference between online, so called friends, and real-life, as we normally would term them, friends?