Blog Post #12: Final Blog Post - How I can achieve Personal Balance with my daily Tech Usage

Over the course of the semester as I have taken this class, I recall how often I spend using technology and what I have been doing with my devices. Before taking this class, I knew that I had to exercise certain restraints when it comes to using technology, but now that I have been a legal adult for more than a year now, I know that it is important for me to be more responsible on my end to make sure I am careful with the amount of time I spend on a daily basis using my devices.

The 1964-65 NY World's Fair "Futurama" Exhibit

"Mad World" Music Video

The videos we watched in class spoke volumes to how much technology has become integrated in our lives, with each video highlighting the positives and the negatives. The World's Fair "Futurama" video did highlight many forms of technology that we discussed in class that exist today, despite some innovations mentioned in the video having been established in our modern lives. I was surprised to see how many advances we have created over the course of a few decades. However, "Mad World" highlighted the negative effects of technology, as we are engrossed in our devices to the point that negative images of how our bodies should look, who we should follow, and how we should present ourselves online, chip away at our self-esteem and mental health. Personally, I have faced times where I know I need to put my devices down and take a break, but there is such an ease of access to devices that makes it hard to put our phones down for even one minute. We have gotten used to having various devices in our homes that make it hard to cut them off, even for a shorter period of time. It takes a lot of willpower to shut off our devices and take a deep breath, and as we use our devices, we become oblivious to our outside environment.

I did not use a lot of technology in my life regularly until I got to middle school, in my early teenage years. The school provided laptops for students to take home and use to complete homework, and many students, myself included, would use our laptops to play games as well as using homework. Around this time, I developed my love for video games and familiarized myself with the characters I have grown to love as I became more versed in the different genres and intellectual properties (IPs) that companies were introducing. The first traditional video game console I grew up with was the Nintendo Wii, and that really sparked my love for gaming and my desire to go into the games industry. As I got older, I was granted more access to technology, having received my Chromebook when I was around 16 or 17 years old. I use my Chromebook mainly to complete assignments for class and for recreational time, such as watching YouTube videos or streaming services. I received my first phone, the one that I am still using until I decide to upgrade to a newer model, during COVID-19 as a primary way for our parents to keep in contact with us at home when they had to go back to work in person. After my parents got my siblings their own phones, they let me keep the old one that my siblings and I shared. Over time, I have noticed how my use of tech has grown and how much of a valuable asset my devices have been to me. That is not to say that I am not distracted by my phone from time to time.

Because I received my phone later into my life compared to some of my peers, I feel like I have not grown as attached to it, but at times, it has been a distraction. Sometimes, I know that I need to get to bed, but I want to watch one more video or read one more article. The more I keep doing this, the more it becomes a bad habit, an ensnaring cycle of the same problem. I need to think about how all of this screen staring will affect my eyes later on into my life. Because of my total tech usage on a daily basis, I feel like my eyes tend to be more irritated than others when it comes to using devices, which goes to show how much extended tech usage can harm the body. There are resources relating to eyestrain and habits to implement to reduce fatigue and irritation of the eye. In training myself to know when I am spending too much time on my phone, I can start making strategies to better balance my relationship with technology every day.

Blue Light Blocking Glasses for better device usage

Because of how I have used my technology recently, I want to do better to balance or limit the amount of time I spend on my devices daily. Of course, because of the world we live in, it is (almost) completely impossible to cut yourself off from technology, but there are some habits I can start to put into practice to make sure I am taking care of myself. There are plenty of articles online that discuss different solutions that I can start incorporating into my life to help give myself a break from devices even for a little while. For starters, I can limit how much I use my phone at night. If I absolutely need to check my phone, setting up a schedule to use "Night Mode" and "Blue Shade" will aid me in protecting my eyes during later hours of the night. Reading physical books from genres I enjoy will enable me to distance myself from a screen for longer periods of time. Taking frequent breaks to stretch my body and clear my head is a good way to refresh my mentality as I am completing my work, which is something I can incorporate even while sitting at my desk. Even something as simple as making origami models or frequent blinking when using screens gives me a few minutes to re-center myself mentally. The writers at Polygon published a special issue with some articles discussing the interesting ways to intersect video games and improved health as a whole. The articles discuss select topics from over-training to themed workouts, all to help "gamers" and "non-gamers" alike focus on improving their health. One article discusses how our desk setup - although specifically related to gaming, it can be applied to different scenarios - may not be the right fit for us and what we can do to change it.

As I reflect on what we learned in class, I know that the tech I use on a daily basis is a valuable resource, but can become a big distraction in my life if I let it. I need to be more willing to change my habits so I can live freely in tandem with how I use my devices. Some of the above solutions I mentioned are things I can start implementing right now. Looking forward, I want to be careful with how I use my devices as well as establishing a much more healthy relationship with the technology I use every day, whether it is how long I use a device and for what I am using my device for.