Young Writers Society

Hey guys! I'm curious. (This totally isn't homework.)

First enquiry; What do you use your phone for? Like... how often do you check your phone/internet/social media? Why do you check it? What happens if you don't?

Second, spam me with some opinions about the use of technology and mobile devices in our culture. Are there good and bad sides? How does it enable/restrict us? Is it leading to the eventual decay of society or carrying us to the space age?

Thanks!

I am using my mobile device in bed right now, at 6:46 am, when I should be asleep. This only happened because I fell asleep while talking to a friend over Facebook last night... and when some sort of consciousness came back to me, I scram to see what he'd said while Id been absent.

I use my phone to wake me up in the morning- not the alarm function; I log onto YWS, check my notifs, and it wakes up my brain. It makes getting out of bed a little more bearable.

I use my phone a lot because i talk better over text- in person, if I don't know you very well, I'm horrible at talking, in groups im really bad at talking to. My social life tends to be online, so I check my phone a lot through the day. This activity increases when I have an online crush. XP

I also use the flashlight on my phone a lot. And music. I hate making noise in public/drawing attention to myself so my phone is always on silent or vibrate (which is good because I still haven't changed my ring tone from screaming zebras).

That's all I can think of right now. I'm going to see if I can sleep some more now!

I personally am on my phone almost all the time! I always have it glued to my hand or side. I tend to go on mainly Instagram a lot, and I only go on Snapchat in the morning and late at night. Within those, I also spend my time listening to music, Tumbr, and Vine. I guess you can say I am obsessed with it, considering i have been on Instagram for 4 years. I check it because I have gotten into the routine of it and besides school, I don't do many productive things. I do put my phone away for dinner, dates, movies, when I go out and get coffee with my grandparents- those things just for respect.

To be perfectly honest, I always have my phone on me, yet I only use it to scroll through pintrest, text friends when bored or need help with assignments, check remind to ask my teachers any questions, or email penpals/keep in touch.
I've grown up in a household that is surrounded by technology, and I used to be obsessed with it all, but after being punished for being in the wrong, multiple times, I learned that it isn't my baseline. I rarely use it if it's not for school. I'll admit, I watch movies and all that, but rarely do I find myself doing something not educational on my devices.
I'm not a big fan of social media, either. If YWS was considered sm, then I'm obsessed with this. But that's it. I used to be obsessed with that too, but I dislike it now ^^
So, not often to be exact.

Use my phone for:

-social media
-the news
-WhatsApp groups both social and work-related
-alarm clock
-as a, you know, phone
-camera
-pedometer
-medicines guide (dosages etc. - literally invaluable for work)

It's my lifeline, I would genuinely be lost without it.

Use it for:

- games
- Internet
- BBC
- sometimes random research

That's it that I can tell you.

I mostly use it

- To receive mum's calls and call her too, occasionally :/
- To check notifications from the uni Facebook group D:
- To converse with Cortana

That's all :3. (The rest of cool stuff I keep doing all day long is basically from my tab and computer, so don't consider me lame xD)

I use it for:

- calling/texting my mom/dad
- texting bc my communication skills are lacking and also I text my friend nonstop
- YWS/online websites
- looking random stuff up (definitions, difference between opossum and possum, recipes)
- listening to music
- the occasional game

I use my phone for:

- contacting my parents
- occasionally texting a friend
- rarely solitaire
- music
- occasionally random online definitions, bird websites, etc.

I use it for nearly everything. Texting and games being the big ones. I definitely feel anxious if I don't have it (say if I forgot it and then went out shopping and there was a line, I wouldn't know what to do while waiting). I'm also lazy and don't like being on my laptop as much, so if I can do something from my phone (e.g. pay a bill, check social media/email), I will. I also get most of my news on my phone, either through social media or the Flipboard app.

There's positives and negatives to all of the above. I remember when I first got an iPhone and started using Flipboard, I was suddenly more aware of the news, which I'd say is overall a good thing (although recent events haven't helped my anxiety). It also makes keeping in touch with people easier, which again can be good, but it also has played a big role in a friendship that grew codependent last year. It also hasn't helped my attention span, as I find myself playing games while watching TV or talking to my friend on the phone.

tl;dr I love my phone and use it for lots of things, but I can also see that it's enhanced some of my negative tendencies, like anxiety and impatience.

My phone, although a smart phone, is very limited. All I can do on it efficiently is text, and even that is inefficient because sometimes messages don't send/messages are sent multiple times, and I can't have group conversations. So, I don't use it very much, and when I do use it, it's only for the necessary texting.

I don't mind it at all, though! I love that I'm able to be independent from my phone. I spend enough time on my laptop and I'm happy that I don't waste more time on a different device or on social medias.

I hardly use soial media. I motly use it to catch up with the doings of one particular famous person. but when I do that, I do it almost exclusively on my phone.

I am writing this post with my phone.

-gps
-games
-music
-youtube videos about half the time
-camera
-voice recorder
-texting/calling
-alarm clock and watch
-pedometer
-anything I'd need to do online. google in your pocket is so helpful
-I make a lot of art on my phone's art app
-I read pdfs asigned for school on my phone sometimes
-I've even recorded my phone's screen to make a youtube video once or twice
smartphones are literally mini computers.I use it for everything I can. Even as a hotspot for my laptop occasionally.


I think this technology is very enabling, but I only do this stuff when it's polite to do so. I wouldn't play games while someone's talking to me. When I'm out with friends, I hardly ever even touch my phone.
some people don't have these standards I guess, so it becomes a distraction.

If i get a notification, and I see it, I only check it if I'm not doing anything else. most of the time i dismiss it tbh.usually they aren't important.

I use my iPod for most social media thingos, using wifi. My phone really only gets used for four things: Calling, texting, Duolingo and photos.

I use my phone for almost everything. By everything I mean my writing. I have all my current novels on here, so I write on my phone. I check YWS on my phone, and then write on my phone. I also text and call and stuff, and usually spend too much time scrolling through Pinterest for character inspiration and looking at the funny stuff that pops up in my feed. As far as social media goes, Pinterest and Google hangouts is the closest I'll get to that. I'm not a fan of social media. But yeah, I use it mostly for writing. And texting.

I use my phone for quite a bit, more and more it seems. Let's see-
-the original purpose, ie as a telephone and for texting
-browsing the internet
-email (I actually usually prefer checking my email on my phone to on my laptop. Mostly to do with the site I use for email)
-facebook
-listening to music (streaming and music I've downloaded
-maps (absolute lifesaver man)
-camera
-making notes, while I was travelling I used the notepad as a sort of journal (which I still need to transfer into my actual travel journal).
-calculator
-torch/flashlight if you insist on calling it that

They're probably the major ones. For travelling my phone was pretty much indispensible - I used it for all my bookings, for maps, as a camera, to call home not as regularly as I probably should have, as an alarm for when I had to leave early. At home it's more of a convenience than a necessity, and I mostly check it out of boredom or habit - if I go somewhere with parents I won't bring my phone unless I'm expecting a call/text or whatever.

To be honest, I do think that this kind of technology is generally a good thing. Yeah, there are downsides but I don't think that we've necessarily become.more antisocial because of phones, for example - I think it just makes it easier to be antisocial. I don't think that social media and that constant connectedness is going to bring about the end.of society - I think it's going to continue to change the way we interact with each other, but overall I think society will manage to continue.

No more midnight rambles from me. Hope I could help.