MOBILE ME & YOU: anonymous

It’s time to share with you our pilot interview for the course of Mobile Reputations, Collaborative Consumption in Sharing Economy, coordinated by Mrs. Betty Tsakarestou .

The first person we interviewed is a 22 years old male, amateur graphic designer who for his own reasons seeks to remain anonymous.

Besides his passion for graphic design, he is a NTUA student. In his phone you can find 59 downloaded applications but on an average basis he uses his phone about 5 hours per day. He spends most of the time on social networks, looking out for creativity, entertainment and productivity.

First thing he checks in the morning are his emails and his Instagram account and feed. Although, his favorite and most useful applications are: Instagram, VSCO, Gmail, Drive he also uses a lot: Messenger, BuzzFeed and Facebook.

If one day we took his phone away from him while he’s outside it would be just fine but he would freak out if he had to live without it while at home.

According to him , he needs his phone all day long .Even though he doesn’t use it as much when he is outside, he could never leave it anywhere else. When he is at home he uses his phone for everything, even instead of his laptop but when he is outside he posts, checks his messaging apps, but more rarely while he is with friends.

He considers his phone as his personal assistant. Mainly because in his phone he can find everything: his calendar, his notebook, his to-do lists and his storage unit. He thinks Drive is really useful and he never has enough storage on his phone for his photos and designs. (iPhone, 16GB). Moreover, he thinks of it as a university tool to check his schedule, his grades etc. When he worked for a startup he used ‘’Slack’’ but found it rather complicated. Another use of the phone for him is transportation. He spends a lot of money and loses track of using the BEAT app. Also, when in need, he uses Google Maps and the OASA application. In the past he has downloaded -and has not deleted- other commuting apps of other cities. (Paris & London metro). He added that loves Airbnb but would not try couch surfing.

As for his personalized use, he does not own any complementary gadgets yet, but he wants to purchase the Wacom One Small Pen. For now, he takes photos of his designs and then uses the following apps for editing and making them look rather decent in a digital form: VSCO, Rookie Cam, Adobe Sketch, Adobe Photoshop, Color.

He also loves photography but uses his phone’s camera less and less. He uses the CanonConnect app and then either VSCO or Adobe Lightroom for editing.

He then posts everything on Instagram.

He has two separate accounts: one more personal for photos and stories and one that is his online portfolio with his designs. He uses the Preview app to be sure of the aesthetic and consistency of his profiles.

(He also used to have a stalking account to stalk on his girlfriend, but she found out…so now he does not)

He’s trying to become part of the designers/illustrators community of Athens. When it comes to Instagram, he posts not to sell his designs but to get feedback and become better. He follows people he admires (TheYawnChoker, The Dreamer etc.) and some design magazines to get inspiration. Usually, he gets messages from friends and strangers that keeps him going and trying to pursue his dream but sometimes he feels both connected and disconnected because of his phone. The information and the people out there are so many that he kinda looses touch with reality trying to reach them all.

When we asked him whether he does his shopping online he answered that he never does it through some app, only via the official site. If he finds something interesting on Instagram he will search for the site. He does not own a PayPal account. He has a premium Spotify account that he pays for every month and thinks it’s totally worth it. Besides Spotify, he pays for BEAT and Airbnb. Has never paid for an app but would do it if he found ‘’ the one’’.

He believes that all Millennials use their phones for almost effing everything, all day long. He thinks that the part of the personalized use is rather important to examine. He said -

‘’ Our phones are our assistants. We all have different lives, different hobbies, and different needs that we try to fulfill via our phones every single day, from the moment we wake up till we fall asleep. First thing in the morning and last thing at night, our phones in our hands.’’

Our team: Christos Daniilidis Danai Lyratzi Frossini Drakouli Maria Kall

Our coordinator: Betty Tsakarestou