Before the metaphorical storm

My really personal intro about My Bodystorming Journey

I’d like to start by saying “First things first, how much energy do I consume?” and have everything neatly done, however, I’m rather far from being a neat person in the writing matters, much less when I’m stuck in thought about this challenge.

I don’t expect to take long to unravel my thoughts, but they are my “First things first”. Since personal experience is a key factor for this assignment about raising awareness on global energy issues, inclusion and community, I believe each student will have different journeys in sync with their backgrounds and feelings, therefore, starting from them makes sense to me.

I’m a foreign student from a developing country. I’ve been doing a lot of research on electrification, poverty energy, energy communities, issues and struggles around the topic thanks to this subject. Lately, I’m jumping from articles to news, even forums full of inspiring, as well as, devastating content about what’s going on now. Then, something that started as an exclusively related energy issue became an endless list of social matters from famine, lack of health and climate change to educational and gender inequality.

The list is ever-growing despite the efforts to make everything even for a brighter future, specifically in developing countries. We dream too big to meet global expectations, and we find a lack of support along the way.

I spot my country in the shape of numbers and references, frequently adding up to the concerning data, it’s there by the name of a whole part of a continent that shares roots in its language, and with those across the sea that are called under the same name of “Developing countries”. But also, I find hope because they are willing to give their all, in spite of transparency issues and perception of risks that translate into a lack of funding.

Then I realized why I was stuck. I’m full of something between the feelings of distaste and shame. Distate of being in a better place in a survival mood as foreign, about to pretend I don’t have full access to energy when I clearly do, while a portion of my compatriots have to face the challenges of a bad quality system. Shame because whether in my country or here, I’m better off than most of them, and the hardest I can try to contribute, it still feels quite little in comparison. Though this feeling is in the middle of both, I still need to meet myself there to get unstuck.

I think I needed to put those thoughts into words, so I could proceed with the journey. Therefore, putting aside hard feelings, I’m starting now.

Second things second

I’m currently living in one of Polimi’s residencies, and bringing this to the table means I don’t have much control over the automatic lights in the hallways and common areas such as the kitchens and study rooms, or the other 99 people with their own habits and personal consumptions living with me. I could ask my roommate to join me in this journey but I believe she prefers hot showers.

So here I go, “second things second”: How much Energy do I estimate that I consume in a day? (having no access to bills, but to the Google Search bar and a calculator in my phone), and the one I will struggle with the most: How much control and independence do I have over the consumption of energy in my surroundings?

Just to clarify, the items listed before are the ones that I have the most control over in terms of use. However, I can’t unplug the microwave or the fridge because other students rely on them too, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try my best to minimize the waste of energy on those items.

I estimated the consumption according to data given by websites, in the case of my laptop, the 10,8 kWh are the result of the calculations I did based on the data given by this website, following calculations I apply under my mathematical understanding that I hope is correct:

“6 hours is 75% of 8 hours, 100% is equal to 468 Wh, what is the 75% of 468 Wh → 366 Wh to kWh is 0.36 kWh for one day, how much would it be in 30 days? 10.8 kWh” -My mind.

I did similar calculations for the rest, searching different sources on the internet: Ipad pro 2020, Electric stove, Microwave, Fridge, Heat shower.

Thoughts on my cellphone

I wanted to be precisely sure how much kWh my brand of cellphone consumes when charging, in exchange, I got to know how much energy a smartphone consumes to function for a whole year. The answer I got for the internet was 2 kWh.

What’s 2 kWh?, In its technicality, 2 kWh (kiloWatts per hour) is 2.000 watts used for one hour. In a friendly manner, 2 kWh is equal to running the fridge (300 watts) per 6 hours, which concerns me more about the fridge than the actual cellphone.

So where does it lay the real spent of energy on a smartphone, that can damage the environment? According to Apple in a report catering to my model iPhone XR, the greenhouse gas emissions accumulate on the production with 76% compared to the 19% destined to the usage of the product. Therefore, the damage is done.

I don’t have much control regardless of the industry consumption of energy and impact on the environment beyond abstaining from owning a cellphone, sadly, that wouldn’t be an efficient answer for me, however, in the future I won’t focus solely on the gadgets of the phone, but on the environmental impact of its production as a key factor of selection.

Not wanting to leave on a sour tone, and recognizing that among my technological products, my smartphone is the one I use the most, I can try to change my habits in order to reduce the consumption of energy.

My iPhone at full function 100% screenplay time can barely last between 5–5 and a half hours, therefore, for the amount of use, I have to charge it at least 2 times per day, without counting the 1 hour I put it to charge before going to sleep.

If I want to reduce the charging time, I need to limit my screenplay hours to at least half. Going a step forward, instead of charging the smartphone 3 times per day, I will try to charge it 1 time per day.

From Monday to Thursday, I used my smartphone on a regular basis to get the data of my common use.

On average, I use my phone for 4h and 24 minutes per day, and from experience, it can reach +7 hours of use. The two days I used it the most were class days, passing 5 hours of use, almost reaching 6 hours.

I spent most on my time on social media accumulating 12 hours and 25 minutes just in 4 days of the week, followed by Utilities, Productivity and Finance representing approximately 11.5% of my Social use.

I would count my Ipad, but I mostly use it for my design job, the one I resign before starting my studies abroad. So, I barely get over an hour of use on average.

For my laptop, the results are quite the same as in my Iphone, with a significant difference in the reasons I use it, which are: taking notes in class, working on school projects and meeting the teammates online. Also, the laptop can last without charging the battery for 3 days of full work approximately.

Therefore, I set my first goal for an average of 2 hours of using my cellphone per day, which will make me have to control the time I spend on social media, something that I’m strangely confident I can manage.

The first time reducing my screen time

Yesterday (October 6th), I decided to give it a try to my goal on a busy day, where I have to check the train timetables, navigate through Google Maps, searching for words: ¡Google translator for Italian in my interactions in the supermarket! Therefore, I just needed to give up on my social media consumption to make it last.

I got through this first day nicely, though, most of the use was destined for Twitter and Monopoly Go, which makes me think I’m going to suffer through this weekend since I can’t count on my phone to spend my free time.

In the following days, I will update you on my other goals, which I let down here as a summary on some topics, and will keep up on this first one, too.

• Reducing the use of the stove and microwave by eating cold food
• The dilemma of showering with cold water or reducing my time in the shower

Thank you for reading my oversharing, I promise for the next one I will stick to the script.