Inquiry Essay Topic

When I was at home, my parents would always yell at me that I’m on my phone way too much. But to be honest, I really wasn’t, I would check my phone three or four times to just check my notifications. Furthermore, after college started this year, my four-year-old phone started lagging and stopped supporting older versions of my social media apps which discouraged me from checking my phone. Once I slowly started dropping hints to my parents that my phone was preventing me from communicating and having access to some key apps, they surprised me with a brand-new phone that I instantly fell in love with. And because of that, I couldn’t take my hands off the slim, curved reflective device.

            I noticed myself getting a little out of control and my parents had a gut feeling that I would. So, before I left to come back from Labor Day weekend, my dad told me that the best way is to have control over your phone and not have the phone control you. He advised me to check my phone only 3 times a day, 15 minutes each time so then I could have more time for the useful things in life.

            My experiment is to reach that stage by slowly decrementing my time of staring at an OLED screen. What I will do is that this week, I will check my phone 5 times a day, for 15 minutes each time - once when I wake up, another time around noon, around 3-4, then around 8 and lastly before I sleep. This will add up to a total of 75 minutes of phone time a day. However, next week is when I will start the rigor of my routine, the goal of my experiment – only check my phone 3 times a day for 15 minutes each time. The times I will check my phone will be at noon, at 4, then lastly around 8-9. This will add up to be a total of 45 minutes of phone time per day.

            I hope to find a new me, one that isn’t addicted to her phone. I hope that after this experiment, I also learn to plan my time out wisely and not spending it on things that won’t benefit me in the future. I also hope to prove to my parents that I am in control of my life, that I can do something whatever, whenever I want to.