Intro to Mass Comm

Introduction To Mass Communication Individual Assignment 1

Camillia Lim Jia-Ying (B1302590)

HELP University 

Individual Assignment – March 2016
MCH101 Introduction to Mass Communication

“What???” That was me when Miss Asil gave us the assignment one fine Tuesday. I felt like that one week would be the longest week of my life and that I would just die if I didn’t get to see Selena Gomez’s latest Instagram photo. However, this assignment certainly proved me wrong. Miss Asil 1-0 Camillia.

One week without Instagram was honestly not too difficult at all. I was a little reluctant to do it, but I just had to get it done for the assignment. However it seemed like a good way to get me to spend less time on my phone. On the first day itself I succumbed to temptation and decided to scroll through Instagram for a short while. I couldn’t resist the notifications. Who is “alitanmuthu96” that just followed me? I had to find out. Throughout this Instagram fast, I realized that I was able to actually socialize and interact with my friends during meals instead of putting 50% of my attention into the conversation and the other 50% into my phone. Deeper relationships with my friends were fostered and we got closer as well. I also deliberately made plans to go out with them and hang out so I could keep myself busy. I typically don’t use my phone much when I’m out with friends so it was a great move for me.

I have to admit, the devil managed to tempt me for 5 minutes. I run an online shop based off Instagram and I had to check my shop’s account to see if there were messages from customers. However I directed them to WhatsApp instead where I could talk to them more efficiently and quickly. Additionally, the fact that Unifi was having some problems and my other apps were loading slowly was an advantage for me. Instagram loads the slowest as it is very photo and vide heavy. Waiting for Unifi to load all the photos was a definite turn off for me and I didn’t want to go through that hassle at all.

I didn’t really have a disadvantage in terms of information. Instagram is mostly used to look at visually appealing photos. Things like assignments, club information and news were updated on Twitter and Facebook. However I felt confused because my friends chose other mediums of social media and were able to scroll through Instagram whereas I decided to abstain from Instagram. When they were talking about celebrities’ or friends’ photos, particularly the clothes that celebrities wore during the recent Oscar awards, I was quiet instead. My friends and I didn’t share any common conversational currency during this period of time and I felt left out during their conversations.

With the absence of Instagram, the app I spent most of my time on, I actually got a life! I got to spend more time at the gym. Since scrolling through my Instagram feed takes such a long time due to the amount of people I follow, I decided to put that time to good use to try to get healthy instead. I can’t exactly use my phone when I’m trying to throw sucker punches in Body Combat. I also spent more time on Netflix finding new TV series to watch. I definitely recommend How To Get Away With Murder, it makes you feel like you’re a lawyer even if you’re the furthest thing from that. Other than that, I turned to YouTube videos for inspiration. I attempted to make some new decorations for my room using ideas that I got from YouTube instead of Instagram. I wouldn’t call this a new form of entertainment, but I used the extra time I had to clean my room and sort out all my old clothes and knick-knacks and now my room is spotless. Instagram wasn’t a form of withdrawal for me anymore ever since I started this experiment and I turned to other types of activities instead.