Assignment 3, SNS Analysis

Avery Stainton

Dr. Terryl Atkins

November 1st, 2021

Introduction to Visual Culture, 1500

Assignment 3: Part A

As someone who plays video games daily, I thought it would be interesting to record the time I spend on the popular chat app, Discord, as well as the streaming site, Twitch. Both of these applications are used daily around the world for getting people together to play video games, chat, and watch their favourite streamers live. I decided to record the use of both of these apps for 5 days, as they both provided ways for me to check how long I had been active for. My total screen time for both programs combined was a roughly a whopping 36 hours and 12 minutes. 

Discord is the site my friends and I use to chat, group up in audio calls to play video games, and meet new people. I use it on both my phone and my PC, but for different reasons. I use it on my phone to text, whereas I use it on my PC to call when playing video games. There are many pros and cons to the site, but one of the most popular reasons to utilize it are its quick and efficient ways to bring large groups of people together. This year, we have seen more and more schools and classes take up Discord as a way to communicate as a class. There are few cons to Discord that I can think of, but some may argue that it takes away from face-to-face time with friends, which I understand. However, when using discord, you are still laughing, catching up, and playing with friends similar to how you would in person; the only difference is that you can’t see their face. To calculate my time, I simply added my app screen time from my phone to the call time I participated in on my PC. This ended up putting me at 28 hours and 4 minutes of Discord time.

Twitch on the other hand is an app used primarily by gamers to stream their screen time with friends, or a growing audience. I have a few streamers and friends that do so regularly, and I simply timed the length of time I was watching them. One of the pros of Twitch is that it allows ordinary people to share their hobbies and provide entertainment, however, this can also lead a lot of people into a desperate need for constant attention. I have personally seen people lose confidence in themselves based on their lack of viewers, which surely isn’t healthy. In the photo provided alongside this analysis, you can see my coworker streaming the tattoo pieces she later went on to tattoo on clients the day before Halloween. Watching her streams and other popular influencers put me at 8 hours and 6 minutes of screen time on Twitch.

According to Tolga Gok’s research, roughly 65% of students spend more than two hours on their computer a day. However, this research is from before covid-19, and doesn’t accurately depict what these numbers would have looked like over lockdown. For me personally, my time would put me at roughly 6 hours of PC time per day. Initially, this surprised me, however when I sat down and thought about it, it made perfect sense. I don’t tend to begin playing video games until around 6 or 7 o’clock pm, and sometimes play well into the night (1-2 o’clock pm). To me, the video game world is a big part of my life, and I often feel left behind if I miss gaming sessions with my friends. According to Felix N. Koranteng, Isaac Wiafe, and Eric Kuada’s research, youth who don’t participate in SNS are often left out of many opportunities. This could possibly include: missing out on world or local news, not hearing about the next big event, or not being invited due to inaccessibility.

The current pandemic has driven a lot of people, young and old, to explore online terrain that they wouldn’t have normally ventured into before. These SNS will only continue to grow, and will hopefully improve lives rather than impede on them. However, we won’t see the effects that it has on the population until the good and the bad begin to show themselves.

Works Cited

Gok, T. (2016). “The effects of social networking sites on students’ studying and habits. International Journal of Research in Education and Science” International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 2(1), 85- 93, https://files.eric.ed. gov/fulltext/EJ1105127.pdf, Accessed November 1st, 2021.

Koranteng, F. N., Wiafe, I. and Kuada, E. (2018), “An Empirical Study of the Relationship Between Social Networking Sites and Student’s Engagement in Higher Education”, Sage Journals, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0735633118787528, Accessed November 1st, 2021.