The main focus of this assignment was to record and complete my internet motivation diary, that was referenced in unit 8 assignment 1. Following this, I had to create a discussion board post, discussing if my motivations varied or do I see some patterns in my motivations, if any of my motivations seem more prominent than others, and do any of my motivations seem to be associated with being in a certain place, using a certain device, or it being a certain time of day.
My discussion board post was an excellent representation of my internet motivation diary. I started by breaking down the motivations I logged, which included 6 stimulus-response, 10 social, 1 biological, 5 cognitive, 10 affective, 6 conative, and 2 spiritual. So, although there are a couple of motivations that were present more or less frequently, for the most part, my motivations were varied.
I noted that there were some motivations that were more prominent than others. For me, social and affective were most common, each appearing 10 different times on my internet motivation diary. So, basically, half of my internet choices are motivated by each of those 2 factors! On the contrary, biological only appeared once, and spiritual only appeared twice, so they did not usually influence my internet choices.
In terms of being in a certain place, when I was outside, this is where both of my spiritual motivations occurred. Listening to music while walking to classes blocks out the rest of the world and allowed me to think more about my own life. However, besides this, I did not notice any patterns based on place.
In terms of using different devices, there is definitely a trend in my motivations. When I am on my laptop, I am almost always doing schoolwork, which is generally associated with a conative motivation. On the other side, when I am on my phone, I am often motivated socially and affectively, because it is where I access social media, keep up with friends, and spend my free time on.
In terms of certain times of day, the only thing I really notice is that I have most of my conative motivations later in the day since this is generally when I do homework, study, and keep up with other academic things. The other motivations seem to be spread out throughout different times of the day.
Reflecting on this assignment, I enjoyed it because I do not usually keep track of my internet usage, and it is even rarer that I think of my motivations behind my usage. It was interesting to experience and to learn about my own choices. Since most internet uses are brief, I only think about them in the moment, and I do not tend to reflect on them later, but this gave me the chance to do just that.
Additionally, it was nice to learn about the different types of motivation, because I had never really learned specifically about Huitt’s 7 forms of motivation. As listed before, these include stimulus-response, social, biological, cognitive, affective, conative, and spiritual. I had heard about all of these before, but putting them all together in one document that summed everything up was very helpful for me.
In general, the internet motivation diary was cool because it was another example of the varied activities that this course brings. We had only done something once before, when we did the news diary a couple units back. It allowed me to track something throughout my day, which differed from the usual method of doing an assignment all in one sitting. This was a good switch up! I hope that future assignments continue to challenge me in new and different ways.
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