Digital Footprint

Digital Visitors vs. Digital Residents

I spend a lot of time using technology, could be either on my computer, iPhone or Kindle but I never really thought about it until this blog. We all use apps for social media and connecting with family and friends we don't get to see often. Social media apps are growing as the days go on, I am always trying to keep up with the trends, but as I got older I started to shift my usages of apps for a more professional growth. 

Looking into my Own Personal Experience

The Professional vs Personal and Visitor vs Resident process helps myself to reflect on my own engagement with digital apps. I first started by opening up my phone and just looking at all the apps I have. At first, I was overwhelmed by this and thinking I have way to many apps but after looking at the map I made I don't feel as overwhelmed as I did. I first started by making the arrows for resident, visitor, professional and personal. After that I dove right in and started placing the apps where I believe they should be.

In the picture below, you can find my digital map:

 

 Image Source: Author

 

Looking at my Google Drawing, you can see that I use a lot of different apps for personal and professional reasons. Some apps I visit more often which I placed on the resident side, and some I click open every once in awhile. 

Talk about if any of the content surprised you or not, and why. Things to consider: does your digital status change at different times (i.e. weekends)? What are the apps you frequent consistently? How often? Consider tallying how much they are used over 3 days. 

In my professional resident box, I have included all of the Google Apps like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar. I also put YouTube and Facebook on the line between professional and personal. I use Google Drive for almost all of my work just to make sure that it is saved and able to be accessed by any computer. For Facebook I use it to connect with other teachers and coaches around the US to see any activities they are doing in their classes that I can try in mine. YouTube, I use it to play music for my classes and also show them skill videos that they might be performing in class. For example, I used YouTube last year to show my students the Fosbury Flop for High Jump since we were in the Track and Field unit. 

I am a professional visitor in the apps Canva, Zoom (thankfully just a visitor now), DropBox, Notes and Spotify.  When listening to music or podcasts professionally, I pick YouTube over Spotify that is why Spotify is in the visitor section. 

Now looking at my more personal resident, I have the most apps in this box. This box includes SnapChat, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, iMessage, TikTok and Google Maps. It didn't shock me that I would have the most apps in this section but if I am being honest I thought I would have a lot more. I use my personal resident apps either early in the morning when I wake up or at night right before bed. I rarely ever spend time on these apps during the week, it is mostly the weekend. 

Lastly, I have my personal visitor side. The side of visitor has a lot less apps than the resident side. This side has Spotify, Disney Plus, Pinterest, ESPN and Notes. This is honestly where I spend the least amount of my time.

Image from giphy.com

 

After reflecting on which apps I use and how I use them, I thought there would be more apps on the digital map than I had. I feel like I spend so much time on my phone and computer that I am constantly using many apps but thinking about it in more depth it seems like I am just using the same apps more than other ones.

Are you finding yourself wrapped up in the digital world? If so, what is your most used app?