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| So many apps! |
I am titling this part one because there are a lot of things that fall into this category! When I am cycling or hiking, it is rain for instance. However, I am not here to talk about rain today. A while back, Rachel did a post about her screen time, and my comment was so long and I still had more to say, so I thought I would do a post about it as well.
I won't quote my own comment verbatim; you can go and read it if you want. However, here is the short of it. On the day of my comment I had 2 hours and 10 minutes of screen time. 31 mins of that was camera use, as I was at a UNESCO site and I took a lot of photos, 33 mins was YT, as I watched one video before going to bed, much of the other time was split between audiobooks and podcasts and 13 minutes was $%^&*# WhatsApp, which is what I want to talk about. I also had 59 notifications from WhatsApp that day, and spoiler alert, this is only from chats that I have not muted!
Many people have asked me how I meet people while traveling. Luckily there are a few ways; one is Meetup.com, which usually consists of a once a week organized meetup of some sort. The next one is FB groups; this can be expat groups or local hiking groups or general travel groups. But usually, each of these groups also has an associated WhatsApp group chat, and this is a very common way to organize meet ups.
In addition to the groups, many international people use WhatsApp to communicate, since it is free to send a "text" from one international number to another, which may not be the case with your regular text message platform. Also, many businesses use this, which is great because just like with the other travelers, this is free to communicate and makes it much easier to make a reservation or call a business if you need something.
So, it can be a good thing for sure. However, weeding through the chatter to get to the things that are actually important to me is not always easy. Most of the expat groups have a lot going on, such as questions like where to buy a dresser or find a hairdresser who speaks English, or where the party is tonight, and there are often chats 24/7, and videos of last night's shenanigans. I definitely keep these big groups muted, but I still have to check them from time to time to see if there is anything useful there.
Most of the time there will be a side chat for certain activities, but these can be a lot too! I joined a hiking side chat and in the 48 hours it was live there were 117 chats, including 234 photos and who knows how many likes and hearts and thumbs ups! That is 59 notifications a day right there!
Additionally, depending on where you are, there is also FB messenger communication; there is an app like WhatsApp called Telegram (there is also one called Signal) and there are even Slack group chats. If you want to know about expat events, you may also have to check Instagram, Facebook or a specific webpage to keep up. Of course if I want to try to get involved, I have to do a complete 180 from my normal style, which was to ignore everything, and now I either have to have things binging and buzzing all day long and/or I have to go in and check 17 different sites to find out what is happening.
Unfortunately, for travel, unless you want to sit in a vacuum by yourself, you have to check these apps and use them to communicate, but I hate it. I generally have all notifications off on my phone except for my regular text messenger and my Google chat, which is where my family communicates. Otherwise, I will go and check certain things a few times a week and respond as needed. However, now I kind of have to have more of them turned on or I could miss stuff, but I really don't like it. I still (stubbornly) keep a lot of the notifications off but then I have to either be sure to purposefully check or I sometimes miss things.
Did I also mention that any time you book a tour or any activity, there are several more WhatsApp notices with the same information that was already in the original email and then follow up chats about reviews (in addition to the ones in my email)? Sigh.
However, I do wonder why the US has not yet really adopted these channels, and when I had to get in touch with customer service to AMEX about a travel related issue (so, yes, I am not in the US), I had to make a real live phone call! So, I guess in the end, I would rather put up with the WhatsApp etc. than have to pay extra to make a simple phone call in the year 2025.
But wait, I am not done with this rant yet. Can I tell you how annoyed I get when people just text the word "hello" and then nothing else? Or when you text them with a very long explanation and/or question and they return text only one word or an answer to only one of the five questions you asked? Or instead of texting one paragraph, they text five separate texts with a sentence each, which means, you guessed it, you get five notifications! This seems to be very prevalent in Türkiye. I am not saying that there are not people in the US that do it; there are! However, just get to the point people!
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| Shopping for a new phone in France |
So what is the point of this rant? When you are traveling, you really can't live without a smartphone. I mean, you could, but life would be a lot harder. So as much as I try to ignore it, I need it. I really don't want to go back to paper maps and phone cards, and I am pretty happy with the fact that I can land in a new city and make connections so quickly, but sometimes I wish I could just turn the dang thing off for a long, long time.
P.S. I wrote the first part of this post back in April when Rachel wrote her original one, so I thought it would be fun to check again to see what my usage was yesterday.
Saturday June 7th:
Screen time: 2 hours, 2 mins.
Clock 20 mins (I used the timer)
AOL 19 mins (I decided to unsubscribe and archive a bunch of emails - this is an old email address with a lot of junk)
Goodreads 12 mins
FB 11 mins (travel groups)
Chrome 10 mins
Telegram 8 mins (travel group)
Notifications: 69. Mostly from:
Clock (not sure why)
Messages (texts)
WhatsApp
Chat
Unlocks: 22
Bottom line: it is not really much different than April!
Your turn! I have questions for you!
1. What are your phone stats (how many times do you unlock? How much screen time do you have in a day? How many notifications do you get per day)?
2. What is one app you cannot do without?
3. What app that you need/have to use most annoys you?
4. How do you feel about people who either do one word texts OR really long ones?
5. Which of the apps in the photo above do you use to communicate?
This is interesting, Kyria. My screen time - on my phone - is usually around 1:45 per day. My most used apps are Duolingo and Spotify, also Gmail and Messages. Most of my communication is around messages rather than WhatsApp, I only use that for like three people. Now, that's screen time on my phone only. I probably have way more pickups than I should have, I'd check right now but then it would be a pickup. Just kidding, I'll check just for you. 48 pickups! And a lot of those were the weather app. Am I a senior citizen now? I use my laptop a LOT more, like for blog reading/ writing and also for SM like Instagram or Facebook, but both of those I would say I use a max of 15-20 minutes a day. I don't use them much anymore because it seems like it is almost entirely ads now.
ReplyDeleteRe: long texts vs one word texts, I don't really care much. I personally don't like typing a whole lot on my phone if I don't have my glasses with me, so a short text is just fine. But then I'm not travelling! Also I don't really care if I get 5 one word texts. I do have a few groups where I get way too many notifications, but hey, I just ignore them until I'm ready to deal with them.
Great topic! I love technology but also find it a bit much at times.
Thanks Nicole! I also use my computer for most things when I can, but I also don't really spend time on social media, except to check the group updates from time to time if it applies. I love that you checked the weather app a lot. Are you going for a beach day? A hike? Or are you worried about the garden? Why do you check that a lot!?
DeleteOne word: outfits.
DeleteHaha! What to wear! Love it.
DeleteLet's dance!
ReplyDelete- I don't have my phone stats enabled, and I don't want to know.
- NYT crossword, which is my only paid subscription app. The runners up from my home screen are: Overcast for podcasts, Feedly, Garmin, Alltrails, Accuweather, Google photos.
- SLACK!!!! I like the app, but I do not like the reason that I have it, which is for work.
- The one word crowd is the worst. There is a special place in hell for coworkers who text Hi Birchie, how are you? and then nothing else until I answer. Sometimes I respond just to get it over with, but I'm not above ignoring them until they finally ask the question, which sometimes isn't until the next day. Special mention to the clowns who use @here on the all company channel for things that everyone does not need to be tagged on.
- Messenger (rare), Gmail (all the time), Teams (the worst...when I interview with a company I always rate them lower if the use Teams), Insta (rare), Whatsapp (I like it, but I mostly use it for 1:1 instead of groups), Slack (work only), and Zoom (work only). Most of my communication is through texting.
My #1 sanity tip is that I am very picky about which apps are allowed to send notifications. Regular text, my personal gmail, FB messenger, Whatsapp, and Slack are in, but everything else has to wait until I come to it. From 10 PM to 7 AM my phone is on do not disturb. Slack is only allowed to notify me during work hours. I have my work email on my phone, but notifications are off. Instagram is also on mute. I don't use apps for FB and LI, I just use the web browser on my phone, so they are also on "I go to you, you don't come to me" status.
I think we are pretty similar, in that I also don't have many notifications on and I would prefer to go to them when I want rather than being notified. I do have WhatsApp on, since it is not just the groups but also friends, but I have a LOT of group chats, if not all of them, muted. I also have DND from 8 pm to 6:30 am.
DeleteI love your response to Hi Birchie. I usually ignore them too, unless they are someone important, but there are not a lot of people who fit that bill. Just get to the point.
I'm just going to freestyle here.
ReplyDelete*I swore up and down years and years ago that I would never text anyone, ever. That typing on a teensy keyboard and paying for the privilege was madness. I also said I would never, ever use text as a verb. I WAS A LIAR.
*I do not have email on my phone. I'm just not going to. I won't say Never (I learned my lesson on that one), but I just don't want to be bothered via Every Single Avenue Available All The Time.
*I block all numbers unknown to me. If it's important, they'll leave a vm. If it's bullshit, I don't want to be bothered.
*I am on DND from 10PM-7AM with a few exceptions for family, especially since I have a 95-year old mother.
I don't allow notifications from anything except phone and text and a photo app in case there is a new pic uploaded of Theo, and those are just silent badges.
*My sister--who is an Olympic class talker--sends me paragraphs and paragraphs of text. I'm okay with that, but not with the reams of photos she sends. Of her flowers, her pool, her backyard birds, screenshots of her text convos with her boss, crap from her fb feed (I am not on fb for a reason), etc. I tolerate it because I love her and understand her. My mother thinks she has to save all the photos she receives via text on her iPad, and then I have to go and clear them all out. Sometimes she saves them over and over again. Sigh.
*I really need my NYT app for Wordle, Spelling Bee, and Connections to prevent me from ending up like my mother.
Haha! I love this. I am also on DND from 8 pm to 6:30 am, and never answer a number that I do not recognize (or respond to texts from unknown numbers unless they explain themselves). Luckily, I think we are not really a family of oversharers, so I don't have to field too many texts from the fam, but even if they did as your sister does, I would do as you do and respond positively if it makes her happy.
DeleteI do have email on my phone but I have it set so only "important" emails give me a notification, which means it has to be from someone personal that I have deemed important, so I don't get notifications from businesses or spam or promotions etc.
I do love Wordle, but I play Octowordle, which is a free web version through Britannica.
Let me tell you - everyone in the US now knows about the Signal ap after the debacle of our Defense Secretary inviting a journalist into a Signal chat about war plans! You were maybe blissfully unaware of this happening. I had no idea that ap existed until that story hit the tape.
ReplyDeleteI do not check my screentime because I don't do anything on my phone that I want to limit now that I'm off social media. My screentime is high but that's because I do wordle, spelling bee, strands, and connections which I figure is good for my brain. Then I use the NYT ap to do the crossword mini and the daily medium Sudoku puzzle. I also use my timer all the dang time for things related to the kids, I read on my kindle aps, I use Feedly to read blogs, and the list goes on and on. I do not use a laptop computer so my phone is like my laptop (I do have a lap top but it's old and huge so I rarely rarely use it).
I could stand to be on my phone less but am not keen to cut out my word games and such!
One word text = Phil's communication style. If you look at my text history with him, it's block of text from me, followed by "ok", "sure", "fine" or something to that effect. He is a man of few words and does not enjoy texting at all!
Bwahaha! I laugh at your explanation of Phil! However, I can kind of see answering shortly (I am not defending him, I swear) vs starting off the conversation shortly with no follow up. But yes, I get what you mean, and it can seem like someone is mad or something when they are brief. A coworker, who is maybe about 5-7 years younger than me, once told me that if you put a period at the end of your sentence on a text, that came off as angry. What? So now proper punctuation denotes emotion?
DeleteI can see how if you do not use a laptop, your screen time would be higher. If I added in laptop time, I would probably add another 6 hours onto my number, as that is where I research travel, play games, have vid calls with family members, blog, respond etc. or watch movies.
I can see your reasons for using those apps - and it all depends on a person's situation, I'm sure. They're incredibly useful for your travels! The only app I have from your screen is Gmail. I use the phone's texting app for most communication. I'm only texting with family or close friends, so a one word answer doesn't bother me at all. I use Audible and Word Chums (a game) quite a bit. Even though I don't use a bunch of apps, I wouldn't want to be without my cell phone! I just checked, and I don't have my usage stats enabled, so I'm blissfully unaware of how much time I spend!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are a lot less of a slave to your phone than I am! Good for you. I never enabled a monitor but it was doing it in the background all the same... So now I know. I don't think my screen time is that high really and most of it is useful apps. However, I do sometimes wish that there was an app that compiled all of the communication apps so I could just have one all in one place. I do a lot on my laptop, as some/many things are much easier that way for me, and I did not count this in my number, but that could easily add another 1-6 hours depending on the day.
DeleteUm okay... how do you track your time on various apps? I am curious (scared, maybe?) to learn my own stats.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I use my Libby app the most, followed by my email app, followed by my web browser. Or maybe those last two are swapped. Instagram is in there, too, and my text messenger app. Oh -- I am also using my camera ALL THE TIME lately, to record my kitten's every breath.
The excessive notifications would drive me bonkers. I only allow notifications from my text messenger app. Everything else, I have to seek out. My husband gets notified with every email and sports update and I would go crazy. Sometimes even the texting is A Lot, and I don't think I text that much!
The tracker came on my phone (Android) and is called Digital Wellbeing. It is in the same area where I could set DND or parental controls on my phone. My camera app app also gets a lot of use, and Libby, but maybe because it runs with the screen dark, it does not count that as "screen time." OMG your husband's sports notifications would drive me nuts. Re texting, I am more of a "business transactions" kind of person, so will text when I am meeting someone or setting something up, but not as much just randomly to say hello.
DeleteUgh, screen time. An ongoing issue over here! I don't have notifications enabled on most apps, but I am super guilty of being an "over checker". I am actively working to decrease this habit. I just tend to grab my phone and "make the rounds" WAY too often. For me it's email and Facebook, mostly, and then sometimes Instagram or Feedly. I also do get involved in many text chains and threads and will check if I got new texts. My pick ups are stupidly high in a day and I hate it! I have been very recently really trying to sort of dock my phone when I'm home more. This does help a lot! I don't mind having other apps on my phone as I keep them mostly all buried in the App Library and just access them if I need them (e.g. Chipotle app, airline apps, etc.).
ReplyDeleteOne funny story I tell people a lot about emails + phones: I clearly remember when Ivan and I were newly married, I think it was, and we went to get new phones. At the time, I don't think the iphone was even out yet, or if it was, we weren't in the market for it yet. But I remember we looked at some phones that had this "new feature" where you could check your email on it!! And I recall, clear as day, raising my eyebrow at Ivan and saying, "Well, I definitely don't need that. Why would I need to check my email on my phone? I don't think I'd ever do that." oh man. Fast forward 18 years, and here I am checking my email on my phone 50x a day?! UGH UGH UGH. I know there are so many benefits to having a smartphone, and I truly can't imagine how we even did certain things before them!!, but sometimes I crave the old life, before all this technology ruled our worlds. I know I am probably much worse with it too, compared to you and many other commenters! I have sort of an addictive type personality where these sorts of things are a real struggle for me!
Haha! Your story about the email is funny; I do remember thinking things like..."why would I need that?" for a lot of the applications or things. Even apps themselves, I wondered why I needed one specific company to have it's own little box when I could just enter the web address in and get to it! I did a RTW trip in 2010 and had just gotten an iPhone (in 2008 or 2009 I think?) but there was no cell service, so I barely even used it! Even WiFi wasn't really a thing, so I would still go to internet cafes, and I had paper maps and would call on a regular phone to make a reservation, or just do it in person sometimes! What a difference 15 years makes!
DeleteI think as a parent it is probably worse (you tell me)! When I am helping my friend with soccer practices and games pick ups and drop offs, there are so many apps and chats for that now too, which is way better than having to remember what color shorts to wear to the away game, but still, multiply that times 4 or 5 activities x two kids and it is even more communication apps! I don't know how you guys do it.
Your whatsapp commentary is on point... I feel like it's not as big in the US but you can see how quickly it gets out of hand here... but for things you like! At this point it feels like email and text and facebook and instagram all combined into one. I know it's free and that's why people love it, but my time isn't free so that's why I don't.
ReplyDeleteI think it's the unlocks that got me most on my own phone use, I'm still averaging about 40 a day and it just seems crazy to me that I go look at my phone that frequently. My average is about 1hr 30 and I only get 8 notifications a day, which is probably just texts since everything else is disabled.
I am OK with long texts but not keen on multiple line short texts
Interesting how global whatsapp is! I keep hoping Meta will try and monetize it soon and then destroy it by doing so.
I have heard comments from several people about disliking WhatsApp and Zuckerberg and so they asked me if I was on Telegram, which I wasn't, but now there are several groups I need to follow that are on Telegram, so now I am! Whew! It may be good to have other options if he does try to monetize it. Just like most things though, it (they) definitely have good and bad points. Yes, I like that I can text a bar and ask them if they have vegetarian food, or what time trivia is, but no, I don't love that any tour I sign up for has several ways to get ahold of me now!
DeleteI guess I don't unlock my phone too much. Mostly if I am out and about, I will unlock it to check the maps a lot, or take photos a lot, but otherwise, I don't really check to see if I have messages, and I have all noises and vibrations off.
Well, I'm kind of a weirdo because I don't really use my phone THAT MUCH. I use it to take photos, send and receive texts, and sometimes Spotify. I guess I do use it to listen to my podcasts, and that can be a lot- so I take it back. I do use my phone, but not for games or actually communicating much. I do all my blog reading on my laptop- so it's not like I'm anti-screen. Getting all those notifications would REALLY annoy me! But.. I see the issue. It's pretty important if you want to have any connection to anyone while you're traveling!
ReplyDeleteI feel you on the whats app. And I am not a heavy user. I have a bunch of group chats muted. Even family because it can get overwhelming when a bunch of photos are uploaded and you get alerts when you try to do some focus work.
ReplyDeleteI bet being on the road and being part of the groups is helpful and overwhelming simultaneously.
Some quick answers to your questions:
1. As for my current usage. I actually try to not use my phone this week. Mainly social media but in general I try to leave it be. So I will not go and check the stats right now. But it's been between 2 and 4 hours depending if I have to do community management for my clients.
2. Probably camera app.
3. all those security apps. I know why I need them but they are annoying.
4. I don't respond to people with multiple one word response or questions. I have actually told some of my friends to stop it. But even worth is voice messages. Hate it.
5. For private communication iPhone messages, what's app and that's about it. Business is a whole different picture.
I agree re voice messages (voice texts). If I have to click an extra thing, I probably will not do it! Also, I want to be able to glance at it and get the information, not have to stop what I am doing, put in my earbuds, click a link, and then to have someone say something like, "okay" or "I will call you later" or "let me know what you think." That solves nothing and I just wasted my time. I actually have seen a lot of people where I am now who listen to the messages out loud in public, so this means that I get to hear everyone's business. The whole point of texting is to not bother other people with your call, so the voice texts are really kind of missing the point.
DeleteWhat’s App is a huge help when we have kids study abroad. We also used it when traveling back before our phone service worked overseas, which was a lifesaver when attending Irish dance competitions overseas.
ReplyDeleteI don’t pay much attention to my screen time alert. It popped up once and my kids were BLOWN away, but I use my phone for everything while babysitting- reading blogs, phone calls, taking pictures of toys and posting those to my parent page. I google stuff and check the weather and use it for directions all the damn time. I am not one to surf or hang out on social media sites.
Most of those apps are foreign to me. The girls’ school has multiple group chats and the constant alerts makes me CRAZY. My kids just showed me how to silence the alerts but it’s like the little boy who called wolf. What if I miss actual important info? Ugh.
I have the same fear as you re boy crying wolf, and even worse is that if everyone put their emergencies in one place it would be easier, but for example, if I only check my email once a day (which is often the case) but you email me an emergency item, I will not see it. However if we all agreed that emails were for things that did not need a response right away, and WhatsApp was for emergencies, then we could just have the notifications on the one app. However, everyone uses a different one so then you have to check multiple apps over the day. Especially for you when you have parents and kids to communicate with. I am not the one to call if you have a life or death, because my phone is often in another room or on silent or on DND!
DeleteUgh. That was me. Ernie- not anon. ;)
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I looked at my screen time stats, and this week I've picked up between 20 and thirty times a day. I turn off most notifications. I allow messages, a few security notifications from banks and work programs to log in and facebook messenger. I had 14 yesterday and the lowest this week was Monday with 6. Screentime average is 56m. My most used app is the Age, our newspaper. Whatsapp I go in to check before I go to running group (the sessions and location are put in that), but also I try to remember to check reasonably frequently because we have residents chat for our building that I might need to check, plus one for our body corporate committee. I've deleted my insta account and deactivated Facebook so no social media use.
ReplyDeleteThat is me (Melissa).
DeleteIt sounds like you have a good handle on your phone! I am kind of similar with WhatsApp; I have the groups all muted, as there are too many useless (to me) conversations much of the time, but if I am going to join an activity or look for info, I pop in and check. Otherwise I keep my personal friends unmuted. I do the same for FB messages, as I do have some people who use that to communicate. I don't think I am ready to deactivate FB, as any time you are doing a long ride, or a cruise or certain travels, there are groups that can be very helpful, so even though I never go on and scroll my feed, I do use it to get info for things I am doing/planning.
DeleteLOL, I am NOT going to tell you my screentime usage. From this post + all the comments, you guys would DIE if you saw my screentime usage. It's a problem, but the best I can do is set up the Downtime feature on my phone which limits most apps from 8pm - 9am. It does help! But my screentime is still very, very high.
ReplyDeleteI try to mute as many conversations as I can because I hate getting those notifications. Especially for group chats, and ESPECIALLY when everyone is just "liking" or "loving" or "laughing" at messages. UGHHHH. WHY.
One of the reasons I hate dating is that suddenly I have to be attached to my phone and answering messages in a timely manner. Even if I set up boundaries around texting, it's still annoying to have to deal with that, lol.
I have never done online dating, but I am fairly sure that I would dislike it for the same reason that you do. I like to check and respond to messages at a certain time of day, and only once per day if possible, and am not really a fan of being constantly on or available or responsive. I will get to them all, but I will not have a back and forth convo in real time most of the time. And, I will sometimes thumbs up instead of saying "okay" but I am not really a like, love, kudos person.
Delete