In Chronically Online, Elite Daily asks people to get real about their phone habits, tracking their screen time over the course of a week. This week, BDG editorial intern Jess Ferguson, who this week graduated college and attended Taylor Swift\u2019s <\/em>Eras Tour, shares the apps she used, the time she spent scrolling, and the Internet rabbit holes she went all the way down.<\/em><\/p>\n When I was in high school, I once went one month without even seeing my phone. My friends and I made a documentary about the alarming rate at which phones have become a part of our lives (which has only increased in the five years since we made it). We wanted to do a social experiment, so we locked away our phones in a briefcase in our film teacher\u2019s classroom. Text messages became emails, and nighttime doom-scrolling rituals became reading. Overall, the month honestly wasn\u2019t too bad. (But had TikTok been around, I think I\u2019d feel differently.)<\/p>\n While that month was a refreshing detox<\/a>, my phone use slipped back to how it was before, only <\/strong>I became hyper-aware and had guilt about how much I was on my phone. I have made some changes, though. In the past year, I\u2019ve set up one-hour screen time limits<\/a> <\/strong>on my most-used apps \u2014 TikTok and Instagram \u2014 to prevent me from spending hours on end on them, but sometimes I bypass the reminders with the touch of a button. This week, I found myself occasionally ignoring the time limit, like on Tuesday (my highest screen time day) when I made an Instagram post.<\/p>\n I wanted to track my screen time to become a little more self-aware of my phone usage. I always joke that I\u2019m chronically online, but do the numbers actually reflect that? This week started with my graduation from Emerson College<\/a> and ended with seeing Taylor Swift on the <\/em>Eras Tour<\/em><\/a>, two of the most significant events this year. Uber was my enemy, TikTok was my vice, and Messages was my savior. <\/em><\/p>\n Occupation<\/strong>: Editorial Intern, BDG<\/p>\n Age<\/strong>: 22<\/p>\n Location<\/strong>: Boston, Massachusetts<\/p>\n Weekly Average (May 14-May 20)<\/strong>: 5 hours, 1 minute<\/p>\n I woke up bright and early Sunday morning (6 a.m., like my high school days) to get ready for my college commencement. After rushing to get into the building, checking in, and finding my place in line, the long wait began. I stood in my designated spot for more than an hour and a half until we began our walk into the ceremony. Naturally, in between reunions with some friends I haven\u2019t seen since I finished classes in December, I spent some time on my phone. I texted my family, making sure they got prime seating to watch me cross the stage. After the ceremony (and a couple of spiked iced coffees at my family\u2019s post-grad brunch), I scrolled Instagram to look at all the grad posts and comment some variation of \u201cslayyyy\u201d on them. Later that night, my sister and I tuned in to one of the final Succession<\/em><\/a> <\/em>Sundays ever. After the episode was over, I did my ritualistic scroll through Twitter to read the discourse on the episode and watch the preview for the following week on repeat to pick up any hidden details<\/a>. <\/p>\n Most-Used Apps<\/strong>: Messages, Instagram, Twitter<\/p>\n Screen Time<\/strong>: 4 hours, 53 minutes<\/p>\n My biggest supporters \u2014 aside from my family and best friends \u2014 are my parents\u2019 Facebook friends. Every time a pic of me is posted, whether it\u2019s my birthday or, like this week, my graduation, I get an ego boost from the flood of comments showering me with compliments and well-wishes. Does that make me a narcissist? I don\u2019t care. I spent a chunk of time scrolling through the comments from my adoring fans and, of course, liking each one.<\/p>\n Then, after work, I went out for dinner and drinks in Boston to send off some of my college friends before they flew home. I ran late for our dinner reservations and forgot that on top of rush hour traffic, the Red Sox were also playing that night, so I checked Uber every 30 seconds during my ride to see if the ETA had magically changed. (It hadn\u2019t; I was late.) Then, later that night, I again was scouring the app in desperate attempts to make the surge pricing go down. (It didn\u2019t; I spent an exorbitant amount of money.) This wouldn\u2019t be the last time Uber wronged me this week.<\/p>\n Most-Used Apps<\/strong>: Messages, Instagram, Uber<\/p>\n Screen Time<\/strong>: 4 hours, 14 minutes<\/p>\n After waiting for the influx of graduation posts to die down, I posted a photo dump<\/a> of my senior photos, grad day photos, and the staged grad photos I took with my bestie. I spent some time on Instagram replying to comments and looking at other people\u2019s pics. Before bed, I was in a rabbit hole of watching Netflix\u2019s Maid <\/em>on TikTok, a show I\u2019d already seen on my TV like it was intended to be viewed. However, I somehow got sucked into rewatching a portion of it in the most inconvenient format possible: cropped and flipped, slightly pitched up to avoid copyright, and in three-minute increments. I admit I was sucked in for way too long and ended up going to bed far later than I planned. I also relied on Messages to send off some of my friends who are flying back home after graduation and I don\u2019t know when I\u2019ll see them again. (I\u2019m not crying, you are.) <\/p>\n Most-Used Apps<\/strong>: TikTok, Instagram, Messages<\/p>\n Screen Time<\/strong>: 5 hours, 36 minutes<\/p>\n Eras Tour<\/em><\/a> prep came in full swing midweek. I looked at TikTok to see if there was anything I was forgetting to bring to tour<\/a> and made sure to get a clear bag, per stadium policy. This is where I realized TikTok is my ultimate frenemy: Even though I often learn useful things like new recipes or Eras <\/em>essentials, most of the time, I\u2019m just draining my limited free time with it. At this point, I also started to freak out a little bit about traffic and getting into the show. While this is my fifth Taylor concert at Gillette, I forget just how hard it is to go to a major stadium in the middle of the suburbs. I anxiously scrolled through TikToks warning people how early to get to the show, the stadium regulations for what time you can come and what you can bring, and started panicking that I would miss Phoebe Bridgers<\/a>\u2019 set since she\u2019s one of my favorite artists. Before bed, the group chat with my friends from home was blowing up with two of my friends sending AI deepfakes. It\u2019s now a TikTok trend<\/a> to use AI to rendition different photos of yourself, like wearing professional clothing to use as a headshot. My friends\u2019 pics looked a little too yassified to pass on LinkedIn, and someone had to be honest!<\/p>\n Most-Used Apps<\/strong>: TikTok, Messages, Instagram<\/p>\n Screen Time<\/strong>: 4 hours, 34 minutes<\/p>\n Before I pulled myself out of bed in the morning, I scrolled through Instagram to get caught up on some posts and clicked through all of my unopened stories and DMs. I\u2019ve been trying to spend as little time on my phone in the morning as possible since the dopamine releases<\/a> you get as soon as you wake up can negatively affect the rest of your day. Obviously, that goal flopped this day.<\/p>\n As Taylor implored in \u201cYou\u2019re On Your Own, Kid,\u201d fans have rushed to \u201cmake the friendship bracelets \/ take the moment and taste it.\u201d And of course, I had to oblige! My sister (my Taylor concert buddy since 2009) and I spent most of our night making beaded bracelets to represent most of the eras. In between, I checked TikTok for any other potential ideas from SwiftTok. I also scrolled around on Twitter to see fans\u2019 predictions on what Tay\u2019s rotating surprise songs<\/a> would be this weekend (which, yes, defeats the purpose of them being a surprise, but it\u2019s still fun). <\/p>\n Most-Used Apps<\/strong>: TikTok, Messages, Instagram<\/p>\n Screen Time<\/strong>: 5 hours, 5 minutes<\/p>\n The day I\u2019ve been waiting months for finally came. I attended the first night of the Eras<\/em><\/a> shows at Gillette. (My hair, makeup, and internal body temperature thanked me for missing the rain show<\/a> by one day!) Even though the concert didn\u2019t start until 6:30 p.m., my whole day basically revolved around it. I slept in later than usual to make sure I was fully rested for the big day, but when I woke up, I hit the ground running. After going on a coffee run and picking up some post-show snacks, I slowly started to get ready. I went for a Midnights<\/em>-inspired look<\/a> and kept my \u2019fit and makeup in navy tones. As I did my hair and makeup, I shuffled Taylor\u2019s discography on Spotify to pregame for listening to her music for another three and a half hours (it makes sense to me).<\/p>\nDay 1: My College Graduation, A *Long* Day<\/h2>\n
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<\/picture><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nDay 2: Obsessively Checking Uber & A Night Out<\/h2>\n
Day 3: Photo Dumps & Watching TV On TikTok<\/h2>\n
Day 4: Eras Tour<\/em> Inspo On TikTok & AI Deepfakes<\/h2>\n
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<\/picture><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nDay 5: Making Friendship Bracelets & SwiftTok Inspo<\/h2>\n
Day 6: Eras Tour<\/em>: It\u2019s Been A Long Time Coming<\/h2>\n