My Digital Life

Smartphone Usage
I use YouTube quite a lot. YouTube is a media where you can watch videos from many
different creators all over the world, I reckon I spend up to six hours a week on it.
I use Whatsapp to communicate with friends and family as I don’t have any social medias. I
probably use it around three hours a week.
I use Spotify to listen to music, I use it as a background noise when I’m doing my homework
or something else, especially when I’m in the car. I use it around nine hours a week, I have
premium so I can listen from wherever I am.
Alight Motion is another app I use. It is where you can make short videos with a collection of
pictures and background music, it could be called an edit. I don’t use it all the time so I
would guess I only spend around an hour on it a week.

Laptop/Tablet Usage
F1.com- 1 hour
Motogp.com- 4 hours
H&M.com- 30 minutes
Twitch.com- 1 hour

Television Usage
We have Sky so I watch Tv through that, but I don’t often watch tv. I really only watch Tv to
watch F1 so I probably only spend about four hours on the weekend when watching
Qualifying and the race, that’s also only on select weekends.
We have Sky Q at my dads house as well.
We have one television in our living room and that’s it. We have another small one but it
doesn’t work anymore.
At my dads we have a tv in the living room and one upstairs.
I have a subscription to Netflix, we share it with my mams fiances family. My dad has a
separate Netflix subscription as well.
I watch Netflix on my iPad. But you can’t watch what I view on tv anywhere but a certain
television channel.

Total Screen Time

The total screen time I use in a week is 29 hours.
I think this is probably an average time for a teenager my age and I guess the nine hours I
spend on spotify might not count so much as screen time. But I do think I should be
spending a few hours less on a screen.
A curious question asked was do parents spend more time online than students. In my case I
think so. My dad spends a lot of time possibly watching Netflix or playing a videogame
online. But he also does a lot of editing and promoting his website and pictures online as
well.
My mams job is centred around using a computer as well. She designs any patterns she
wants to experiment with on an editing software and browses social media sites for
inspiration. Most likely to promote her website as well.

Radio Usage
I drive from Drogheda to Dundalk most mornings and evenings, during that time we listen to
RTE 2FM.
On a rare occasion in the mornings at my dad’s the radio is on.

Music
I listen to music on my phone, using Spotify. I have premium, it is a family account between
me, my mam and her fiancé. I probably use it about nine hours a week.

Gaming
I don’t regularly play but I might play on the weekend or if I have no homework after school.
I use an xbox 1 and only really play two games.

Sport/Exercise
I don’t play any sports. But I go for long walks or jogs on the beach some days. My walks are
between two hours and three hours long.
I’d love to be able to exercise more but my schedule due to having to travel between houses
can be very hard and I can’t sign up to a gym as I’m too young. I should exercise more and
reduce my screen time as well.
My mam and her fiancé are quite active. I would love to be able to go to the gym with them
but as I mentioned I am too young.

The World Health Organisation

The World Health Organisation, they predict that 56% of the Irish population will be obese
by 2020. They say that it could be due to the amount of screen time we have.
I don’t think its only screen time, a lot of Irish people might have a treat throughout the day
or biscuits with their tea and coffee. We need to balance our diets properly, reduce screen
time and exercise more.

Mobile Phones
Vodafone provide my phone service, I have good coverage here. But coverage in rural areas
tends to differ.
I have a pay as you go phone. I pay about forty euro. I have a deal where I get unlimited
texts and unlimited texts and calls on the weekend which costs twenty euro. The other
twenty euro goes to credit a month.

How would you feel about phones being banned in school and
internet being turned off at ten o’clock?
I hardly use my phone in school anyway so I wouldn’t mind. I usually go to bed around ten
or a little later so once again I wouldn’t really mind. But if I wasn’t tired I could easily read a
book.

If your phone was taken off you for a week would you miss it?
I think I would miss it, I’d feel sad not being able to talk to my friends all week and I use my
phone to take pictures for photography. Plus I’d lose all my pictures that I’ve taken on my
phone.

Copyright
When you do something original you are entitled to payment because you own this thing,
unless you sell your rights.

Music
If you write and sing a song you get paid, like The Beatles. Elvis Presley sang the songs, but
he didn’t write them, so he didn’t get as much money as The Beatles.
In Mozarts time they didn’t have technology, so he made his money or royalty off
performing in front of crowds and selling his sheet music.
Records were invented in the 20th Century, you could record music and sell them on records.
They got 20c for a single and about a pound for an album each record. Artists would put out
a single and make a few more singles throughout the year, then they would put those
singles onto an album and sell it again. Artists got very wealthy from this.
Then came the cassette player, which meant artists got more money from cassettes and
records. They got a pound per cassette
In the 80’s came the CD so people were buying records, cassettes and CD’s. They got a
pound from a CD as well, so there was a lot of money being earned.
The internet arrived in 1990. People could get music online and download it. These people
could download music for free which meant artists weren’t earning any profit. Napster was
the first free music site where you could download music illegally. People were violating
copyright by downloading music online.
Musicians should get paid for making their music, they write, produce and sing the songs.
They put a lot of work into their music, making it their own. So you shouldn’t be able to
download it illegally.
Now in the current year, 2019. The illegal part is almost completely gone. We now buy our
music from Apple and Spotify. Apple paid 5c when an artist’s song was downloaded. Spotify
pay the artist 1c for every song downloaded.
I think the artist should be paid more but not a euro or pound like it was before.
I have never gone onto the internet and downloaded a song without paying.

Senior Citizens
In Ireland when you get to 65 you retire and get your old age pension. You go to the post
office to receive this pension each week or whenever you receive it. Sometimes this can be
the only time older people interact with others. Which is not fair as they deserve to be able
to socialise with friends. Making towns and villages more accessible for older people would
mean they might get more time to socialise and get out more.
Last year (2018) the government wanted to close rural post offices which would mean
senior citizens who only socialise when they go to receive their pension wouldn’t be able to
do that. They’d also have to travel to receive their pensions. I believe this would have a
negative impact on a community.

Working From Home

By 2025 it is estimated that 20% of the workforce will work from home.

Advantages
- It is better for the environment and less travel.
- You won’t have to pay for childcare if you have children.
- You can’t work on your own schedule.

Disadvantages
- Less social interaction with others.
- Could lead to obesity if you are at home all day.
- Might get less exercise.
Manufacturing
15 to 20 years ago almost everybody worked in factories. 4,500 people who worked in
factories lost their jobs because of modernisation and jobs taken over by machines. If these
jobs disappear people need new jobs. They can be retrained or are left unemployed for
quite some time, which costs the government money. The most popular course in Dundalk
College is IT.