Data Diaries: How this student’s grad week usage surprised her

Welcome to Data Diaries, a series from Mint Mobile where we find out how well our own employees actually know their wireless data usage habits, in an effort to help you better understand your data usage habits as well. Since we all work for a wireless company, we should know a thing or two about how we use our 5G·4G LTE data, right? Let’s get into it.

Meet Denisse

This is Denisse, from the Mint Mobile team. Denisse not only works full-time on our Content team here in Southern California, she’s also a part-time MBA student who’s constantly on the go. Her phone is never out of reach as she relies on Google Maps to navigate everywhere she goes, listens to music and podcasts on Spotify and YouTube while at the gym, in the car, or on walks, and often finds herself jumping into Zoom meetings with classmates as she works towards completing her degree. 

“I’m big on podcasts, and I go between Spotify and YouTube to listen to them. And I try to walk my brother’s pug every other day for 30 minutes, and I’m listening to podcasts on one or the other.” 

Pregame: Denisse’s data predictions

Before we started tracking Denisse’s data usage for the week, we asked her for her expectations. Taking into account how she uses her wireless data to check emails, navigate with maps, browse social media and attend virtual meetings with classmates via Zoom, in addition to all the music and podcasts she streams, Denisse made her predictions.  

“I think Zoom will be in the top five, because I use it a lot for school, and definitely Spotify. Probably Google Maps, because I can’t go down the street without using Maps.” 

And remember, we’re talking about the 5G·4G LTE data included in her wireless plan. When Denisse is connected to her home Wi-Fi, she isn’t using cellular data. 

“Usually, the only times I’m not on Wi-Fi is when I’m driving or at the gym. I usually go there five times a week, for an hour at a time. So I know a lot of the data that I use on Instagram and TikTok is when I look at a workout influencer to find a workout routine.” 

Game time: Denisse’s week of data usage

Key findings from Denisse’s data diary

After recording her predictions, we tracked Denisse’s data usage for seven straight days. The results were SHOCKING (just kidding, but there were a couple surprises).

We see that TikTok took the top spot thanks to Denisse’s reliance on it for workout inspo at the gym, where she doesn’t get Wi-Fi, followed by the other app she uses at the gym: Instagram. As expected, Spotify was in her top 5 too, since she tends to stream music and podcasts at all hours of the day.

“I’m not surprised that Spotify’s up there. With my drives to school and work, since I always have music or a podcast on. Also Instagram and Tiktok. I use Instagram a lot when I’m at the gym to look at workouts. A lot of my data usage aligned with when I went to the gym, since I can’t get on Wi-Fi there.”

The big shocker? Amazon’s shopping app in the number 3 spot. But there’s a good explanation for that one.

“I was a little surprised that Amazon was in it. I’m moving, so I was looking for furniture on the app while I was out and about, which I don’t usually do. I didn’t think about that as something that would use a lot of data, because I was just swiping, typing, and adding stuff to my cart. But I guess it did! If I knew how much it would use and needed to save my data, I definitely would’ve waited until I was on Wi-Fi to use it.”

And yet, even with an unusual amount of Amazon shopping added to her typical week of streaming, navigating and video calling, Denisse only used about 4GB of data—which was still more than she anticipated. 

“I was surprised that I used around 4GB, with how often I’m on Wi-Fi.” 

If Denisse had kept these data habits up through a few more weeks, she’d end up using approximately 16GB of data in one month—which is still about 4GB less than the average data user goes through each month.*

Postgame analysis: Denisse’s final thoughts 

So how did this enlightening week change Denisse’s perspective on her monthly data needs? 

“My instinct would be to go with an unlimited plan to be safe; but tracking my data over a week, I actually found that I wouldn’t need unlimited data to do the things I mostly use my data for.”

This is something we at Mint notice a lot. Many wireless users believe they need an unlimited data plan because they stream, surf, scroll and swipe all day from anywhere. And for many people, depending on usage and Wi-Fi access, an Unlimited plan is their best bet. However, with accessible Wi-Fi being as common as it is nowadays, a lot of users don’t go through nearly as much high-speed data as they expect. Curious about how much data you actually use? You can track your data for a week using your phone’s app info in the settings menu. Or, you can start by checking out our blog that will walk you through determining your data usage at the link below. 

_{*https://www.usnews.com/360-reviews/services/cell-phone-plans/how-much-data-do-you-need}