Brain dump - Dumbphone experiment

Tomorrow I will be beginning a small experiment inspired by the fast we tried out earlier in this course. Instead of going on a total fast like the last time, this experiment is constructed to generate data about my thoughts and feelings toward, not being able to connect to social networks and media all the time, with a touch on the large screen on my phone. To do this, I've come up with the idea of making my phone dumb by stripping off all of it's smart features. This means that for a period of 48 hours will be using my smartphone as a regular phone, for only SMS and calls, it will be unusable to search the web for anything, it won't notify me on activity on social media, and I can't use it for killing time checking something or everything that falls into my mind.

So how do I actually feel about this experiment? I've previously posted about my thoughts on the "myself as a heavy user"- experiment, which I wasn't very happy about participating in, this experiment on the other hand, I find very interesting, and that is why I'm going to conduct it! When I think back to my younger years, and to the time I got my first phone, which was when SMS was first emerging, it opened up a whole new world for me! The reason I got this phone, was due my switch to a new school, and my parents wanted me to be able to get in contact with them, and my new friends at this school, wherever I was. The phone was quite limited, and also quite expensive to use, so it was more of an emergency-thing, than for entertainment (that came later when i got my Nokia 5110, which had snake!). In the recent years we have seen the emerging technology of the smartphone, before this period, smart phones (not smartphones!) where primarily reserved for businessmen that needed to check their email and be connected to their business all the time. These phones where powered by Windows Mobile or Symbian, and had internet connectivity, which at this period in time shifted from being by-the-minute (WAP) to a more stable passive but stable (and faster!) connection in EDGE. The cost of data was still so high though, that it still was reserved for the 'important' businesses. Today we have smartphones, which basically means a phone, that is capable of 3. party apps and internet connectivity primarily through the cellular network at 3G or 4G (almost, since LTE is technically not 4G) speeds, speeds that are actually higher than what most people have in their homes. The availability of WiFi-hotspots around the cities and in the homes, made this evolution possible, as people wasn't forced to pay high data-rates at first, but could start out with using the new features, when they were at home, or another place with wireless connectivity. With the recent drop in data rates, we are using our phones like never before, and where SMS was the cash cow of the 00's, data is definitely the cash cow of the 10's!
I have to stop my self before running out of hand with anecdotes.. What I'm trying to say with this, is that the evolution happened so quickly, and for a child growing up with the change, and experiencing it on first hand, it was interesting and exciting! I didn't think about how my usage changed, I just followed along and tried to keep up with the latest technologies (yes, I'm tech savvy, I talked my parents into buying modem, broadband internet, switches, routers and wireless networks for the benefit of the whole family). This has put me in a position where I never really had to make up my mind about jumping onto a new technology, as the evolution was already on-going and coming so fast, that there was no time to take a decision, you could either follow along or step out. But now I believe that we have reached some kind of standstill in the development, as out phones are only getting faster, getting more space and larger screens, the innovation of the market has slowed down, to more of an incremental type of innovation. This gives time to catch our breath and reflect upon our use in the past, and this is what I try to be doing this experiment, reflect on my usage, by taking myself back to the time where i had my first colorscreen phone with a separate camera (my SonyEricsson T310i, what a badboy!), which could send SMS, call and take pictures if I brought the camera along. It was WAP-capable, but since there was really no sites available this can't be transferred till today.

By doing this I'm still connectable, but by forcing myself to use media on my laptop, I hope to see a glimpse of what impact the smartphone really has made to my life, by taking myself on a journey back to the start of the era, and relive the experience, although only for a couple of days.

Brain dump - Heavy user experiment

I've been thinking about doing two different experiments to gather data for my exam paper. One is to make my smartphone a dumbphone, and stripping it for all it's fancy capabilities, and using it only for SMS and calls. I'll be talking about that in another post. This post will be about the other experiment I've been thinking about: being a heavy user of social media. This experiment will be based on me setting som rules for my social media behavior, where I force myself to comment on others post's as well as posting content xx times a day. This experiment would force myself to do something I don't do a lot; be active on social media! I usually lurk and be passive, I really don't know why I don't use the different media to a higher degree, but I now how I don't want to be perceived on social media; as a person who post everything, all the time! I hate like-hunters, these people whom only post to get likes, and whom get disappointed if they don't get 'enough' likes from their connections. I just don't see the point.
Unless these persons are important to me, and I want to know what they are doing, I block their content, as I think it's kind of irritating that they are posting everything they encounter on the internet, every, useless, unimportant, thing. I don't want to be that type of person! I want to have some kind of distance to my media use, and every move I make on social media is usually thought of for some time, before actually getting posted. I'm trying to have a healthy relationship to my media use, even though this means I seem passive, and that others don't get a lot of information about me and what I do. As mentioned earlier I'm a 'freerider'; gaining the benefits from the media and others, not contributing to the greater 'good' (I really don't believe that there's a good in this, but for the sake of the saying, I use this term here..).

Actually what concerns me the most about being a heavy user for a day or two, is if others would recognize my sudden increased interactivity, or maybe the opposite, that it would be recognized at all, and that it would be a waste, for anyone other than the sake of this experiment? Maybe the overall thought related to this, my change in behavior, is connected to my feeling of being seen on social media? I don't have an urge for showing off, and telling others what I do, and don't need the recognition connected to this, and others commenting on my posts and thoughts. Some would believe this could be connected my fear of not getting any comments or recognition at all, I don't, because as mentioned I don't have this urge, and I see Facebook status updates and other media as something used to say my opinion, and not asking or posting stuff that I want response to, this is simply not how I see these types of media. I use it for other things as well, as chatting or getting information about people, but actually posting to get some kind of interaction is useless to me.

My fear of being seen by some as the person who without any particular reason starts posting stupid things, and commenting without any other reason than just doing it, is what is holding me back. I don't know if it would be healthy for me to try it, and get some kind of 'insight knowledge', but my fear for been seen this way is to high, I don't want to be this person..! I guess this is highly related to my need for managing my social media facade, and maintaining how 'I' is perceived by others on the internet. I don't think I'm doing a lot of maintenance, but this is some of the things I do, and prior to writing this, I really wasn't aware of it. It was more a thought of not showing off, and not having a need to interact this way, but actually it seems like a way for me to manage my facade, and instead of posting and doing stupid things, I do nothing at all. The question is, if it is better to do anything, even the slightest, than nothing?