Phones, Meditation Apps And Nephews With Basia

A conversation with Basia Wozniak about her phone. Conducted by Reed Immer, recorded on Reed’s iPhone 4.

Basia GIF from Young Adults And Their Phones

Glitch credit: Robin Szypulski

RI: So what type of phone do you have?

BW: An iPhone 4S.

RI: And what do you use it for primarily?

BW: Texting, talking, photos–normal stuff like that. But also social media and I use some apps.

RI: What apps do you use?

BW: Two of the most used ones are a dream log and a meditation guide. The dream log is called Dream Key: I write my dreams into it and it highlights keywords and tells me different ways to interpret them and what roles they often play in dreams.

RI: And how about the meditation guide?

BW: That’s called Silva Relaxation. It’s a guided meditation that helps me relax and leads me into lucid dreaming. I play it every night before bed.

RI: And do you use your phone as an alarm in the morning?

BW: Oh yeah.

RI: So your phone puts you to sleep, wakes you up, and helps record your dreams. Quite a comprehensive relationship. Did you pay for those apps?

BW: No! Only free. It’s outrageous to pay for apps.

So your phone puts you to sleep, wakes you up, and helps record your dreams.

RI: So you’ve never bought any $1 Jack Black soundboards?

BW: I’m not wasting my money on that.

RI: Yeah. I definitely wouldn’t either… So how about social media? What social networks have you used in the past 30 days?

BW: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.

basia phone

Basia’s iPhone 4s

RI: Some of the people I’ve interviewed before have said they like Instagram because there’s not too much drama on it. Do you agree?

BW: Yeah, well maybe not. For my age group there’s definitely less drama, but for younger people definitely not. Like my niece and nephew, they’ll post stuff that’s like Direct message me and I’ll tell you if I wanna smash or pass, and I’m like, are you kidding me? You can’t post that!

RI: How old are they?

BW: My nephew is 16 and my niece is 14.

RI: And they allow you to see their social stuff?

BW: Yeah. I originally didn’t want to have any contact with them through the internet, but then recently decided they were old enough.

RI: Do you think that was another step toward them seeing a fuller picture of you? From you revealing your social media self?

BW: Yeah, partially. They’re still blocked from my Facebook.

RI: So what do you post on Instagram and what do you post on Facebook?

BW: I don’t know. It’s just tracking the cool stuff that’s happening in my life. If I’m having a good day I’m going to document a part of it, whether that be my dinner or my outfit or whatever. But each site also has different audiences. Like if I’m sharing something political it will probably go on Facebook, because that’s where my friends are who care about that kind of stuff.

If I’m having a good day I’m going to document a part of it, whether that be my dinner or my outfit or whatever.

RI: Do you only communicate with friends and family on social media? No strangers?

BW: Right, except for Tumblr. On Tumblr there’s a lot of people I don’t know, but I feel like I know them because I’ve followed their blogs for so long.

RI: And do you use Tumblr on your phone?

BW: Tumblr no. I don’t like the app so I only use it on my computer. But everything else I use on my phone way more than on the computer. At first it was weird, because I had to get used to how everything appeared differently on the phone than the computer, but now I’m used to it and computers seem weird.

RI: Phone is the norm.

BW: It’s nice. Phones are small, manageable.

Other posts in the Young Adults And Their Phones interview series:

Camille, social observer

Allan, autocorrect victim

Ivan, construction worker

Kevin, selfie cynic