[researcher][00:01] This interview follows your two week participation in our study on Instagram use and mobile banking apps. Thank you for completing the logbook entries. Today, we'll talk through some questions, reflections and feelings about your experience. Just a quick reminder that this interview is being recorded as outlined in the consent form. If you have any concerns about that, please let us know. And of course, you're free to skip any question at any time if it makes you uncomfortable in any way. 

[researcher][00:23] Okay, so to begin, please can you tell me about your main hobbies or activities that you enjoy in your free time?

[participant][00:30] First of all, hi, I hope you're doing good and in my free time, I usually enjoy doing sports, cooking and investing.

[researcher][00:42] Okay, and do you find that you know your mobile banking app or Instagram can kind of support or interfere with these hobbies at any point?

[participant][00:52] Yeah, when it comes to cooking and, yeah, actually, for the three of them, it helps me improve. And the three aspects, of course, maybe for investing, it's more like to alert me about my investments. It's like it alert me. And for my the cooking and sports cooking, it helps me improve my recipes, or, like, see something from a different point of view, like that I never thought of it, and for sports, it like helps me to improve my my workouts, my like, my program in general.

[researcher][01:28] Okay, cool. And before starting this two week long period, how would you sort of describe your typical interactions with Instagram and and your mobile banking app?

[participant][01:40] I mean, it wasn't my like, little bit interaction is like, I use it in the morning while going to uni, and sometimes Instagram like, like, during breaks, like, class breaks, and if not like, That's it, probably for Instagram and evening, when I get back home, you know, chilling in bed before sleeping, you just procrastinate on it. And when it comes to the banking app, it's like, more straightforward. I mainly use it like, throughout the day. For example, if I want to buy a sandwich with, like, going to eat something with my friends, and, you know, someone pays for everyone, yeah. And then we start, like, sending money. So mainly, I could check my balances.

[researcher][02:26] Okay, and, I mean, you know, you mentioned that sometimes you could, you could procrastinate a bit on Instagram and get a bit stuck maybe. Have you ever sort of set any screen time limits on your phone for Instagram, or, you know, to try and manage your use of the app?

[participant][02:42] Actually, that's a good question, yes, for for Instagram, especially like I might, I always have like, a screen time limit, and it's usually sometimes when I'm like, I have a lot of I [uninteligable] usually set it around thirty minutes. And if I'm on vacation, it's more or less an hour.

[researcher][03:05] Sorry, just a quick note, I'm afraid the the audio that went cut out. Could you just quickly repeat just that last bit what you said?

[participant][03:12] Yeah, I was just saying that when I have a lot of stuff to do, like during exam season, or like when it comes to my work, like I usually set it around thirty minutes per day, for the for the Instagram, and if I'm on vacation, it's probably around an hour, just like surfing, scrolling, and for the banking app, what I did was, actually, I I split my investing, like The bank account I invest in, and the actual bank account that I usually spend my money, like I put money in it and spend money from it, you know, to avoid, like getting, like confusing myself how much I spent on the investing app, because it's a hobby you might spend hour later, hours more than.

[researcher][03:57]  I see, and have you ever, like with your investment app, if you felt you've needed to set time limits to that, or do you feel okay with your use on it?

[participant][04:09] To be honest, I never thought of putting a set, like a screen time limit on it. It's actually a good idea. But like what I usually do, I avoid doing investments in an exam season, you know, because you put it and then alerts start hitting like this, like the stock price decrease, it increases and like you just like again, like you unintentionally you found yourself again this, like distracting yourself and on the Investing app. So I usually avoid, like, going anywhere near the investing app during exam season.

[researcher][04:46] And as you were completing the log with entries over the last two weeks, did you notice any emerging patterns in when or how you used each app?

[participant][04:57] Yeah, for Instagram, mainly. Bored, like, when I'm bored, and, yeah, mainly when I'm bored for Instagram and I have nothing to do one or when I really want to, like, to learn. Like, sometimes, because it depends, actually, on who you follow on Instagram, and it could really help you, if, like, if you have the right content, it could really help you. And for investing app like nothing, like nothing like I had talked about in the previous question, like you know about.

[researcher][05:36] And just in terms of Instagram, is, do you find there's a particular place that you're more likely to use it when you're out and about, when you're at home?

[participant][05:45] Usually, like while I'm in transportation or home, mainly.

[researcher][05:50] Okay, and and over the last two weeks, do you think the amount you've used both your both Instagram and your mobile banking app has been more less or about the same than what you'd usually use?

[participant][06:03] It's more or less the same, like it's five minutes more, five minutes less, but it's mainly the same for Instagram, banking app, it's way less since, since I like, I actually like what I told you about in the previous, previous question, I split the two apps, like my investment application and my banking app. So avoid like, you know what I mean, like getting the actual data on how much I spent on my investing and on the actual banking app,

[researcher][06:30] And across the two week period, did you notice there were particular things that would cause you to open Instagram and likewise, open your banking app?

[participant][06:43] Yeah, yeah, maybe in class, maybe when I'm tired, like during the break, I usually open it, and when I'm bored, probably for Instagram and for the banking app. It's only like during breaks, like big breaks from 1230 to 130 you just need to eat a sandwich or something, and you send money to your friends and everything.

[researcher][07:08] Okay, and do you ever find that there's a situation in which you move directly from one app to the other? So you know you've been on Instagram and you go to your banking app or vice versa?

[participant][07:18] Yes, a lot of times you especially, like, I don't know if, but like, two weeks ago there was the Black Friday thing, you know. So usually a lot of people, like, buy stuff and, you know, like, it was random. I didn't notice about it, and I just saw the ad Black Friday. And then I checked my bank account immediately to see if, like, how much do I have to spend on clothes this this year, you know, to just buy some some stuff that I need to avoid. Yeah, so basically, that's it. Like, sometimes it's shopping, like, sometimes it's shopping and other time is investment at the same time, like, I can see not an ad, but on the other hand, a page you followed on Instagram, saying, for example, silver is silver is going up, you know, and just go to check the graph on on your investing or your banking app, 

[researcher][08:13] Yeah, okay, okay, cool. Thank you. And we, as you know, we recorded your actual screen time usage during this during this period, and you averaged on, sorry, on average, you spent thirty-eight minutes a day on Instagram and three and a half minutes on your banking app. Knowing this actual usage. Do you think you know this is going to influence your behavior at all in the future? 

[participant][08:39] To be honest, when it comes to Instagram, I'm a bit surprised, since I thought it's going to be around fourty-five maybe, or fifty but. But no for Instagram, I think it's good, on the other hand, for my banking app, again, like it might, might seem like I'm repeating like from the previous question, but the way I split my banking, like the banking app and investment app, like you can see, that's why I don't use it that much anymore, you know.

[researcher][09:09] Okay, and so, I mean, do you feel that maybe if, if in a different study there was to keep a track of investment apps as well in a separate way, and track that app usage, that would maybe be a more fair reflection of how much you actually use, sort of your financing apps as a whole.

[participant][09:25] Definitely,  because, like, the time would be way more than three minutes, maybe sometimes way more than Instagram. 

[researcher][09:34] Okay, cool. And were there any unexpected, unexpected trends or insights you noticed about your app usage while using the competing log book, sorry.

[participant][09:46] Trends or insights. Maybe that's like, No, I don't think so, to be honest.

[researcher][09:52] Just just like, as an example, like, for example, you you noticed that you were doing a lot of you're doing a lot of log book, and. For Instagram, you know, late at night, whereas you weren't doing banking app ones, just any, any kind of things that you weren't maybe expecting going into it. But yeah, no

[participant][10:11] My content feed, like, maybe, like, usually I scroll in the evening, you know, just to see, like, the recap of, like, of my friends life, because as international students, it's a bit hard to keep in touch with your friends and in different in a different country, you know, so some of them post stuff. So it's like, it helps you connect a bit like what they did, how they went, and, of course, like when it comes to sports, you can just, I don't have time usually, to like to watch sports events, you know, unless it's like finals or something. So I just keep track by looking at the reels sports highlights on Instagram. That's why, mainly.

[researcher][10:53] And is there anything else that you sort of observed during the study that you there has not been covered in these questions but feels relevant to this research topic?

[participant][11:00] Yeah, it's actually that Instagram influence a lot our, like, perspective on things, because, like, at some random time, like a bit, when you feel like stressed out, the whole exam period, or when you feel very happy you like you, the content you actually see on Instagram is, like, very positive when when you're very happy, and at the same time when you're a bit like, stressed, or, you know, an exam season, some people are more towards depressed than happy, especially first year students. You can see their content is like, a bit depressing, but other than that, okay, so it plays a huge role in our daily life. And like some people don't notice.

[researcher][11:45] Well thank you for that extra observation there. And thank you again for participating in not just this interview, but in our log book period and in our study. And, yeah, no, I hope you have a great rest of your day.

[participant][11:58] Thanks. Same to you, man. 

[researcher][11:59] Take care.