Social Media Takeover.

Recently, I took a deep dive into analyzing my own social habits. I started listening to my friends more, I started sleeping more, and I started visually recognizing how often people stare at the ground, at their own bright and shiny portable screen. Apple beat me to it, but have you ever really looked at how long you log into your social networks each day?

In Apple’s new “Screen Time” feature, you get a real time breakdown of how you are utilizing your phone. Sure, everyone wants their “productivity” category to be off the charts, but more often than not, I bet your social apps are your category leader.

At least that’s true for me. Just last week I spent about 4 hours each day on social media apps. That sounds insane, no? Four hours each day I could be doing anything, but I spend them scrolling.

And why? Because so do you. If I stopped logging in and putting in these hours, how would I be able to keep up with all of the turnover in the world? How would I know who was going to win a grammy award this weekend, before the show even airs without watching each E!News’ predictions. Or, how would I know that Mac Miller’s family and friends released a posthumous album. I wouldn’t, I would be disconnected from all of these updates, just based on the fact that I didn’t put the hours in.

This realization peaked my curiosity. If I connect with people through the screen, am I connecting more, or am I disconnecting? Just because I follow people’s live updates, am I really still “in your life” or am I just on your feed? I wonder how the world will change with more updates, more connections, and more ways to tell yourself you're connecting.

Maybe I’m a skeptic, but wouldn’t it be nice to sit down at a dinner without taking a picture of your food for the rest of your friends to see the dinner they didn’t share with you? Maybe we’ll touch base on this again in a short while, and maybe my skepticism will fade.