M4 Experiential Task
Behavior: How many times a day do I check social media? Can I lower that number so that I'm spending less time on social media?
Reinforcement: For every 5 less times I get on social media I put a quarter in a jar at the end of the day.
Day 1(baseline): 145
Day 2: 136 ($0.50) = It was hard today because I would catch myself getting on social media on reflex especially when i was bored and didn't have anything to do between classes.
Day 3: 121($1.25) = Slightly easier today, however, because I had so much down time today i had to find other things to do so that i wouldn't get on my phone I tried to just play games on my phone but sometimes I would get on twitter by reflex.
Day 4: 127($1.00) = I did not do well today. I guess I kind of had a bad day and got on social media a lot more than yesterday. It was almost like my hand and mine have an autopilot that would take me straight to my social media apps when I would open my phone.
Day 5: 95($2.50) = I did a lot better today, I went down a whole lot and felt it was easier for me to distract myself from getting on my phone period. I would a lot of times stand up and walk to a friends room or walk outside and go to the fitness center. This would keep me occupied for a while getting me out of the normal groove to use social media as a distraction.
Day 6: 72($3.50) = This day was fairly easy to stay off social media, sometimes when i got bored I would call my mom and use her and our conversation as a distraction from being bored or I got a jump start on my homework.
Day 7: 61($4.00) = Today I only got on social media when I wanted to see what my family and friends were up to that i don't normally see but only when I had already finished my homework and talked to my mom for a little bit. It was a lot easier for me to ignore my phone and really live in the moment.
Was there a change between Day 1 and Day 7?
Yes there was, I went down 84 times by the time I got to Day 7, this means that the reinforcement was effective and pushed me to want to earn the money. It was really hard for me to keep myself from getting on social media. A lot of times when I felt the need to get on it I distract myself by doing something active like go for a run or walk somewhere. Or I would call Casady or my mom so that I could talk to someone and use that as a distraction from needing to check social media. I think it was successful because I wanted to see if I could successfully make that number go down and I got myself some extra spending money.
What has changed about me?
For me now I don't really have to have my phone with me wherever I go because I don't need the comfort of using social media to stay occupied. I feel like I can stay in the moment a lot more and enjoy other people's company a lot more. I feel like i value people's attention because I know that before this experiment my attention was always split between a lot of things and I never really focused on what someone was saying to me because my brain was going a million times a minute. This helped me to prioritize my attention and really live life in the now.
Reinforcement: For every 5 less times I get on social media I put a quarter in a jar at the end of the day.
Day 1(baseline): 145
Day 2: 136 ($0.50) = It was hard today because I would catch myself getting on social media on reflex especially when i was bored and didn't have anything to do between classes.
Day 3: 121($1.25) = Slightly easier today, however, because I had so much down time today i had to find other things to do so that i wouldn't get on my phone I tried to just play games on my phone but sometimes I would get on twitter by reflex.
Day 4: 127($1.00) = I did not do well today. I guess I kind of had a bad day and got on social media a lot more than yesterday. It was almost like my hand and mine have an autopilot that would take me straight to my social media apps when I would open my phone.
Day 5: 95($2.50) = I did a lot better today, I went down a whole lot and felt it was easier for me to distract myself from getting on my phone period. I would a lot of times stand up and walk to a friends room or walk outside and go to the fitness center. This would keep me occupied for a while getting me out of the normal groove to use social media as a distraction.
Day 6: 72($3.50) = This day was fairly easy to stay off social media, sometimes when i got bored I would call my mom and use her and our conversation as a distraction from being bored or I got a jump start on my homework.
Day 7: 61($4.00) = Today I only got on social media when I wanted to see what my family and friends were up to that i don't normally see but only when I had already finished my homework and talked to my mom for a little bit. It was a lot easier for me to ignore my phone and really live in the moment.
Was there a change between Day 1 and Day 7?
Yes there was, I went down 84 times by the time I got to Day 7, this means that the reinforcement was effective and pushed me to want to earn the money. It was really hard for me to keep myself from getting on social media. A lot of times when I felt the need to get on it I distract myself by doing something active like go for a run or walk somewhere. Or I would call Casady or my mom so that I could talk to someone and use that as a distraction from needing to check social media. I think it was successful because I wanted to see if I could successfully make that number go down and I got myself some extra spending money.
What has changed about me?
For me now I don't really have to have my phone with me wherever I go because I don't need the comfort of using social media to stay occupied. I feel like I can stay in the moment a lot more and enjoy other people's company a lot more. I feel like i value people's attention because I know that before this experiment my attention was always split between a lot of things and I never really focused on what someone was saying to me because my brain was going a million times a minute. This helped me to prioritize my attention and really live life in the now.
Hey Madelyn this is a really cool experiential task and I really enjoyed reading it. Im glad that you could succeed in the goal you set out to accomplish and it was very well documented and explained to the reader. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteWhile I did not do this assignment I think this one would be cool to see the change that you accomplish. I think it is nice to reward yourself for the good behavior due to it encouraging you to do so. I think it's interesting that it truly did had an effect on you or anyone for that matter. Way to go!
ReplyDeleteHey, Madelyn! I really liked this experiment you did! It really makes you think about how long people are on social media. I think it could be a good think to even delete social media for a couple of days to really see how it would be and then go longer if you wanted to. You can really see a difference in your daily activities and attitude when you do this!
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