Annie Kristal

Q: During quarantine time, how has your screentime been affected?
Um, obviously is increased. My daily average is seven hours and 43 minutes. And my average Tick tock, time is one hour forty minutes and Instagram one hour forty. But I think just in general, it’s gone up and like obviously it’s gone up on my computer because of classes and stuff. But I think like whenever I’m bored I just get on my phone so yeah, I know other people are doing the same.

Q: Do you think it’s a good thing that you’re screen time is higher?

No. What… I think the upside is keeping in contact. So, the more time you spend on FaceTime or texting friends like can be beneficial because you just stay in contact, but I think like time on social media, it can benefit you if you’re looking at the right things. But a lot of the time, I feel like you’re, you know, looking at what other people [are] doing or just like wasting time instead of like maybe doing schoolwork or other things that could benefit you.

Q: You’ve been doing a few daily trailers Tell me about that.

Okay my daily Trillers [vlogs]. So I think it’s uh I was doing them a lot with my friends before I left for school so they were all saying, oh, you know like, “we miss you, miss doing Trillers blah blah,” so I was like okay maybe I’ll do like a daily one keep you guys updated. So I think it’s a way to kind of stay connected to my friends and like keep in contact with them, but also just like a way for me to like entertain myself. And like, have some fun during quarantine.

Q: Do you think other people enjoy [your trailers] as well?

Um, I’ve definitely got some positive feedback and some negative but like people are mostly just joking. And I’m like, if any of you would like to be removed from the story you might as well request. I think I have like twenty people on it right now. But I definitely, it’s like you will make fun of me but I know it’s like, I will like to see what my friends are doing even if it’s like stupid stuff.

Q: Would you rather have your screentime down right now or do you like where it is because you can stay in touch with friends?

I’d like to spend more time talking to friends and less time like on Instagram and TikTok. But I think, I definitely like what I’ve honestly been trying to do. I think it’s better for your health. Like mental health to actually just watch Netflix than it is to just like be on your phone and like on social media. So I’ve been trying to like spend more time on Netflix and like watch things. Currently, I’m watching a documentary about people who think the Earth is flat- which is quite entertaining. Highly recommend Tiger King- also really entertaining. But just like stuff that kind of like keeps you in. It’s kind of like reading. It’s something that keeps you distracted versus watching and seeing things that are all about the virus.

Q: With different movie and TV platforms like Netflix and such, have they consumed your time more than before quarantine?

Yes, only because like back at school I don’t have time to watch. When I was in high school, I definitely had time to watch Netflix- I watched a lot. But in college, like I would barely watch Netflix like it would take me like a couple days to finish like an episode or something just because I was so busy so it definitely has taken up more time, for sure.

Q: What else do you have to say about screentime and quarantine?

I think it’s necessary to stay in touch with people, for sure. But I think the media coverage, there’s a balance between staying educated on what’s going on and then also like taking time and like the space to not be listening to everything because that can get to your head too. So I think you have to find a balance between oh, like when do I check the news? When do I look at what’s going on? Versus when do I just like remove myself from it and like take some time to like do something else and distract myself, so like a balance between different medias to say. Yeah because if you listen to too much news you’ll go crazy. But then if you don’t educate yourself then, but you know you don’t really know what’s going on and like how to act and you know be safe and all that stuff.