So what is somewhat sad about this whole thing is I did not have to change much of my daily routine to really "binge". Media is such a big part of my life every single day I am completely consumed by it. I was originally one of the people that did not have a smart phone till later in life, and I didn't understand the people that felt the need for this constant sharing, and refreshing of the timeline. I was totally fine without having it, and now that I have had it I feel as if I cant not have it. It is apart of me, and I have contracted FOMO (Fear of missing out) disease. Now when I wake up in the morning I lay in my bed, refresh my feeds maybe read an article or two, check statuses, watch snap stories, just all of the platforms.
I choose to not really make conversation with strangers when I am on an elevator or waiting to walk into the classroom. It is just much easier for me to put my head down and be consumed. I feel like I am not wasting time though because I am either forging relationships, maintaining relationships, or gaining knowledge. I know way to much about people I do not know that well but then when I come across them its immediately useful to spark a conversation like "Hey I saw your instagram, Hawaii looked amazing how was it?" So in a way it makes you anti-social at times but can be very useful in social situations.
I have also noticed I most often share on media when I am experiencing intense emotions. I was watching Golden State and they were playing the rockets and James Harden who is known for drawing fouls was flopping all over the place and I immediately ranted on twitter that I felt the rockets were creating ugly basketball. When I get excited about something I want to share as well. I sometimes catch myself and think "you cant post this, this is just bragging." If you look at tweets or instagrams most of the time posts are purely bragging about what your doing. That's how I feel, I feel like everyones online time seeking gratification from peers for how they are living their lives.
My health has not been affected by this media binge but it has definitely affected my sleep. I could receive instant gratification all night ling refreshing my twitter/insta feeds. I then close my eyes and try to sleep and roll around for a while. It has hurt my ability to sleep ten fold. Then if I get a notification it brings me back into the app, and its like might as well check out what else is going on while I am here and then boom another hour of your night disappears before your eyes.
In conclusion it is to late for some of us smart phone users, we are in to deep at this point. However social media is a really useful to but still needs to be something used in great moderation. The world and life itself is to amazing for us to have our heads downed not being consumed by real experience as well as the virtual from time to time.
Sammy Pensick
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