I have always wondered about the amount of information we consume online through our endless scrolling on different platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
I have been very self aware in the past couple months about how much content I’m consuming, especially through Reddit and Twitter and have been trying to minimize my consumption.
The idea I got for how I wanted to procceed with rewiring stemmed from having multiple people point out that the text on my screen was too small. I have always preferred the smallest possible UI and the smallest possible font size. Besides being easier on my eyes it makes me go through more content than if I had a normal font size.
As part of the assignment I proceeded to change my font and UI size to the largest possible option to test the affects it would have on me using my phone.
Needless to say it was very affective.
I heavily rely on my phone to avoid real-life social interactions, if I’m waiting at a queue at the dining hall or waiting for my coffee; I immediately start scrolling through Reddit or Twitter to avoid human contact. I wasn’t too sure that changing my font and UI size would actually work as the content is still there, but I was wrong.
My Home screen, Twitter and Reddit pages; Top photos are the new font size and UI
Although the exact same content remained I struggled to stay interested in what I was looking at because of how large everything was. It took most if not all of the screen’s space to show me two tweets, one of which would be an ad.
For the 24-hours that I did this I found myself barely using phone and if I did I would immediately be discouraged and I’d shove it back in my pocket. Whenever I needed to search for something or use social media platforms I opted for going on my PC which requires more of an effort than a mobile phone.
I gave up certain habits in those 24-hours that weren’t just avoiding human contact. I usually scroll through Reddit while trying to fall asleep and I completely gave that up when I tried “rewiring” myself, I could not bare browsing Reddit for more than 2 seconds.
It’s evident in the photos above how much text size and UI affect how many posts you see. Two tweets versus 5 tweets, one Reddit post versus 4.
Finally, I think this was a productive exercise for dealing with bad habits although I am pretty sure I will never do this again, mainly because I really hate having to deal with large fonts and UI’s. Nonetheless I feel like I have become more aware of how much content I tend to consume because of how easily acccessible everything is.