Quarantine Thoughts

Zomorodi presented a bunch of ideas that got me thinking. Can boredom really produce billiance within a person?

Growing up in the time that I did, my days were spent doing god knows what my child-like mind thought of. This ranged from playing dress up, playing outside for hours, and reading books for hours and hours. I was never really bored as a child, I was always finding something to keep me occupied.

That was until I got my first ever prized possession... my first phone. I had just turned ten years old when I got that phone for my birthday. My fun days of doing endless activities turned into sitting in wonder all day learning what my new toy was capable of. If I was able to track my usage on that phone, it would've been through the roof. As I got older and eventually got my first iPhone it just got progressively worse. Social media apps became a big thing and my number of friends increased (lol) I started texting and Instagramming like crazy.

How does my background with technology (that you didn't ask for) relate to Zomorodi, you might ask?

Well, it just proves that technology is one of our own worst enemies. Though technology is obviously very beneficial to us at any given moment, it also serves as our escape from reality. Usually, when I am faced with something unpleasant I turn to my phone for hours on end as an escape hoping I won't have to get said task done. Boredom itself almost seems like it isn't a problem (to me) anymore because I've gotten so used to being bored, especially during this pandemic known as COVID-19. While I've been stuck in my house during a two week spring break with nothing to do and nowhere to go, I avoided every task possible that was thrown at me by just sitting in my room on my phone until I decided to make an appearance downstairs for my midnight snack.

Alison

While emails started flooding in from my professors about upcoming plans for online classes I realized I needed to get back into an almost normal routine that I would technically have at school and not be waking up at 2 p.m. every day. After reading Zomorodi and the other six challenges that were presented to us, it really made me think about my personal connection and habits that I had pertaining to each challenge. Initially, we were tasked to observe our own phone habits and record them for an assignment to which I noticed that my phone usage was basically most of the day. This, additionally, connected to the rest of the challenges. While I challenged myself to the second challenge I noticed that I was using my phone a lot in the most unusual places. I was on my phone for about 30 minutes straight while shopping at HEB and not even helping my mom, sorry mom. This is obviously a problem if I can't stay off my phone for 30 minutes. But, I realized that it's because I was BORED. Grocery shopping is not something I find pleasant, so I decided to fix that by finding anything at all to do on my phone. Again while attempting another challenge, number seven, I found that with my phone put away and nothing to distract me, my mind wanders and I am really able to sit and focus on important tasks that were previously put off. After I watched a pot of water boil, I sat down and was able to think more about my future and figure out a different major for myself and pre-plan my classes for next semester.

Bored and Brilliant really allowed me to sit and think about my technology usage and how it might not be that  beneficial to me as I would like to admit and how it really isn't healthy. Contrary, this unfortunate time has actually proved to be quite eye opening and helpful. Though I did spend way too much time during my two weeks off instead of preparing for a whole new type of schooling, I was able to see how my phone habits are affecting me. I compared mine and my boyfriend's phone usage and was actually kind of surprised at the results. He usually isn't on his phone a whole lot during the day but his usage for the past 10 days was a total of 14 hours and 22 min on screen and 1 hour and 14 min off screen; as compared to mine which was 16 hours and 18 min on screen and 39 minutes off screen. 39 minutes??? Seriously? I am pathetic. 

Overall throughout this challenge I have learned that I really, really need to change my habits pertaining to social media and perhaps spend time off and away from my phone doing something productive.

Quarantine Day 365

Kevin Dooley

Boredom is complacencies greatest enemy.

In a world without moments of boredom, the annoying somewhat anxious feeling we get when we have nothing to do, we would never feel a need to change, a need to explore new things, we would become very stagnant.

A world without boredom seems to be slowly becoming a reality though, with our mobile pocket computers, capable of granting us access to inconceivable amounts of information. We are experiencing first hand many of the issues that constant access to stimuli can cause.

With most of the population having constant access to such a powerful tool, it would make sense that we would be rapidly advancing at an exponential level, due to the ease in which we could gain knowledge. We should be accomplishing so much, so quickly, that it's like we added more hours to the day.

However, for all every benefit to mankind that cell phones have contributed, there seems to be several nasty side effects plaguing us, and moving us backwards towards a vegetable-like stagnation of the human experience.

Without the hours of boredom, allowing the mind to wander, wading through its own thoughts, where is there to draw inspiration from? The human imagination is one of its biggest assets, and we waste a lot of its potential by wasting time not creating, but passively sucking in unhelpful information.

Although social media and cell phone access are still in their infancy, we are already seeing the negative effects that they can have on the population, with some, like James Williams, arguing that the release of this technology to the world was actually unethical.

As a regular cell phone user, my first instinct is to reject the notion that my phone is hurting me. I've long-since antagonized and ignored anyone who has tried to preach to me how evil my cell phone is, and I think most people who are under the age of fifty have done the same.

The cell phone has become so deeply ingrained in our society that it seemingly has become harder to function, especially as a working person, without one.

The rapid integration of the cell phone into every aspect of human life have made owning one, and having some competency in using it, basically mandatory to survive.

The cell phone seems to do everything for us, like a magical thousand tool swiss army knife, aiding us in every situation imaginable.

Every moment we would have spent bored, staring at the wall in the past, now we open up twitter and instagram, constantly refreshing, checking for notifications, looking for anything new.

Our society is becoming one without the moments of nothingness. Boredom is becoming less and less of an issue we regularly have to deal with, and now, a few days into self-quarantine, having been basically fired from my job for the time being, I am learning first-hand how helpful boredom can be.

I have done my best the past few days to avoid wasting too much time on my cell phone on social media, which seems like the least natural thing to do in the middle of a pandemic forcing you to stay at home, but the lack of distractions has been extremely helpful to my progress as a creative.

Although Covid-19 is wreaking havoc in many ways, I'm having the time of my life.

The world is slowly slowing to a halt, and most of my obligations are simply disappearing in front of me for the time being as the world seemingly falls into chaos.

For the first time in a long time, I feel free, I feel like I can breathe, my mental health is better than it's been in a very long time.

I've spent the past several days constantly creating, locked in with a few other musicians, and without the mental and time constraints of my normal, busy life, constantly checking for assignments and notifications, I've become exponentially more productive than I would have otherwise.

The increased creativity and energy I've gotten from our pandemic precautions has illustrated to me just the lack of freedom we have that Williams was talking about.

Had coronavirus not changed everything for the time being, William's words would have far less meaning to me than they do now.

Social media, and all of the time wasting infrastructure put in place that we blindly accept and live by, is just means to keep us a distracted, malleable, sheep-like population, and once a major event like this occurs, it serves to highlight just how ridiculous the way we live our lives is.

The fact that we are as a society trapped in our own world of distractions is common knowledge, however, rarely do we ever get an opportunity like now to actually sit around and think about the implications of this reality, we were "too busy" before.

One can only hope that our time out of the loop allows us  to reflect and actually make some change for when things "go back to normal".

Roy Costello

Weekend Habits

Recently, the top of my reading list has been a book called Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zamordi. The point of this book is to get us away from our phones or at least make us more aware of how much we use our phones. The book has an activity that requires an app on the phone to be open at all times that tracks how many times you pick it up, how much screen time throughout the day there is and creates goals for you if you wanted to make a change in usage habits. This app inspired me, raised so many questions and created a whole new thought process for me. 

Over the weekend I decided to do exactly what the app did only in secret. My boyfriend is not the type to be on his phone all the time, or so I thought. Keeping up the best I could watching how many times he looked at his phone and trying to keep up with how long he stayed on was such a challenge but I did the best I could and what I found was amazing. I compared my secret observations to my own apps findings about me and compared the two. 

I thought the results from the app would be a bit skewed because I am at school all day and after school I have work so would it really be a proper analysis of how much I would usually be on my phone?  The weekend was a better time to test this out. Friday was the first day I tested this out. I did have three classes Friday as well as work but this was the result of Friday for me.

I reached the goal of exactly 40 pickups and spent three hours and twenty minutes on my phone. Not only does this shock me because of how busy I usually am on Fridays, but this makes up for almost two movies. The amount of things that could have been done during this time seem almost endless. Since I was gone all day, I wasn't able to keep an eye on my boyfriend and his phone habits. 

Surprisingly, Saturday’s pick ups and times were a lot less than Friday. I was off of work all day long and was getting ready for a party later that night. This is weird to me. The day that I have less things to do and way less places to be is the time I'm not actually on my phone. Does this make my device something of a distraction? More for play and less for work? Or can we blame the constant updates on Coronavirus from the school and my family making sure that I am okay and they don't need to start planning my funeral anytime soon? I started to keep track of how many times my boyfriend picked up his phone on Saturday and there were many times that I know I missed, but from what I recorded he picked up his phone 28 times and with all the separate times combined, had an average screen time of 1 hour and 45 minutes. Of course these numbers are not exactly accurate but from what I could see and catch, these were his numbers. 

Sunday there was a difference in what we usually do for the weekend. Sunday was a recovery day, lazy day, self help day, mental reboot day, whatever you'd like to call it. The time on my phone decreased significantly because I was asleep until about 3pm and once I was awake, we just watched movies all day long. Although we are  talking about the art of distraction through the phone, can we include the power that Netflix seems to hold over us? Like some magical spell cast upon us to make us watch an entire season of a show in one sitting and not even feel guilty about it. I think this is the same idea that Zomordi has about cell phones and how much mindless time we spend looking at the tiny screen without a second thought to what we are actually doing. 

So the real question here is, does the phone that we hold on to for every event in our life really serve a purpose? Do we use it to keep up with important updates that we could literally turn to see on every TV? Or do we use it to take our minds somewhere other than work when we really need to focus on getting things done? If we take into account how much we use our phones as a reward after doing something difficult like work, homework, grocery shopping etc., we use our phones and social media as something to reward our good behaviors. It's a distraction, it's a habit that we can't seem to break, it's a reward, its work, it's good, its bad, it's everything, and because we make it our everything, we have now created an entire life around our tiny little screens.

Your Device is a Tool: Stop Letting it Use You.

        

Believe it or... believe it, (that's right I'm not giving you an option) social media can be unethical and it can deprive us of our freedom. I bet you thought I said that because social media is "addictive" and you are right, social media is addictive but it is also unethical for other reasons. Let's dive in.

Think about every time you downloaded a new app, of course, you have to enter an email so they can send you daily junk mail that is inevitability going to end up in the trash section. After you have entered the same password you have used for everything, the app then asks you to access your photos and your location. That's when you are left thinking why does the game subway surfers need to use my location?

I always find myself in that little moment where I go "hmmm" and my thumb hovers over the screen for about three seconds and then I find myself allowing the app to use my location. Why? Because I know it will lead to the following question if I don't. Asking again to allow for the app to use my location or access my photos. Sure why not if it means you'll stop.

We haven't even begun to think about the terms and conditions either, there is no redlining the terms and conditions of an app. You are kind of forced to agree. Yes, they give you an option but how much of an option is it really. If you don't agree with what happens, well you can't use the app. Point, blank, period.

How about the "free" wifi locations where all you have to do is accept the terms of service. Has anyone actually took the time to read what they are agreeing to. I could have already signed over my first home to multiple companies for all I know. But we are so addicted to our phones that we NEED social media.

Apps like Facebook and companies like Apple have an upwards 15,000 words in there terms and conditions spread across pages and pages of information that isn't even easy enough to read. (considering that 36% of Americans have intermediate literacy levels)

So what right? We have already agreed... who cares right? I bet you have thought that nothing will happen to you. Or maybe you have already decided that your FBI agent is too nice to plaster the pics in your camera roll that you wouldn't dare show your grandma. Companies only care about surfing through your pictures and tracing your location because they know about you now, and what I mean Is, they will know what adds to give you. (Most of the time) 

Facebook has a purpose for themselves, which is to make money, meaning Facebook's purpose for you is to stay hooked. I didn't just make that up.. look here! In an interview with one of Mark Zuckerberg's colleagues, Sean Parker says, one of the questions they asked when creating the app was "How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible." Is it sad that it's not even shocking to me?

They want to keep you on their sites for one reason, to make money. How? You bet so. Off ads.

One of the YouTubers I watch created a series of videos creating profit off of ads... while still using ads. Seems like a cycle huh?

Clevver style is a YouTube channel that is apart of a huge company, they do multiple different segments on their channel, a current trend they have begun to experiment is buying every ad on *insert social media platform*. Clevver style has found a way to successfully make do with the ads we see daily.

And then there's me, watching and being entertained. The idea of actually buying the ads you see was fascinating to me. For me, the ads always seem so untouchable. I find myself clicking on the ad ever so often and then /scrolling through the sight. I have never actually bought the thing that was going to be selling.

A couple of things are happing here, essentially we are getting an overload haul of ads, but this time its for entertainment? The ads started when I clicked on the video, if you are a YouTuber watcher like myself then you could know that YouTube starts the videos with an ad. The video then starts and we jump right into ads (specifically talking about the Clevvers buying ads videos) as they are scrolling through social media. After they buy their products they then sit there and review the products. After the video, it ends with an ad. But wait! You can't forget about all the YouTube ads that get thrown at you during the time you spent watching. 

So you mean to tell me that I watched a full 20 minute of ads in different forms and I enjoyed it... Why is this? Clevver creates a brand of authenticity. Although I was watching ads I was laughing and enjoying the videos, people in the comments express the same thing. No one seemed to be overly bothered by the video. 

We were all connecting to the authenticity of the people in the videos. Clevver was open and honest about the brands. They remained practical and upfront with the products. It seemed real and it seemed like they cared, they weren't trying to push products. Although someone might have watched that film and bought a product. Overall, authenticity seemed to be key to selling products.

But wait, we can't be too real because it might end up looking something like this:

Its kinda weird to see that, right! But this also presents a problem. Would that even work out? would products end up being sold, the comment section seems to think so. Not sure if that is enough of a push for companies to change their entire advertisement process.

                     

Perhaps holding companies accountable for ads or even holding companies (like Facebook) accountable for the addictive properties they have would prevent two things. The invasion of privacy and the constant overload of marketing and advertising. The users have more of a voice then we think, without us, there wouldn't be a platform and their woulodnt be money.

We are capable of change. No one is okay with allowing bullying or cyberbullying so why are we letting brands do that to its consumers?

Forget about the terms and conditions, forget about the constant ads, forget about the phone.

Screen time and age requirements

This blog posts will be about what screen time means and what my screen time shows about myself and when should a person be able to use a phone. I will start off by addressing the age part. Growing up I thought I lived a pretty active life and didn’t worry much about getting my first phone or any type of video games. I think this can kind of go back to what we’re talking about in the last post where I said people need to find hobbies and things to do so that you are not worried too much about the electronics. I think today’s society is a good group to look at when it comes to deciding when it is a good time for a person to get a phone. All my little cousins have asked for new phones every year for Christmas at such a young age and my parents would have slapped me if I asked for one when I was not even in middle school yet. When you really look around the community and see the little kids  on social media it is honestly scary. These little kids don’t know what common sense is in the first place. These kids don’t even know how to wipe their own but, THEY SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO USE A PHONE AT THIS YOUNG OF AN AGE. Looking at my family, the older kids in our family did not get phones till 8th grade and freshman year. And for the most part, we seem to be doing just fine and are pretty normal. The young kids that have phones right now are honestly kind of annoying because they always ask question on what to do and are hooked on their phone nonstop just because they think it is so cool. I don’t think that they have the responsibility to be handling electronics because this could lead to them posting something that they are going to regret down the road because everything that is posted is there forever weather you know it or not. They could also possibly see something that their little brains and eyes are not allowed to see that might mess with their head. With all this being said, the older generation can do the same exact thing. It’s just a part of life. There have lots of normal people as well as celebrities that have been Torn down to pieces for something that they posted a long time ago and this is the danger of social media and this is why you should really think before you post anything.

I will now transition to the screen time portion. I think sometimes we tend to forget how much time we really spend on our phones and this setting makes it easy for people to check up to make sure what their history is, and it’s just a cool thing to go back to look at. Let’s take a look at what exactly my screen time was for today. As of right now, my daily average of 7 hours and 38 minutes which seems like a normal amount of time to me. If you really think about it, that Is a long time for someone to be staring at your phone screen. I recently compared my screen time to my friends and there is a 3 hour difference..... that makes me feel like I am spending useless time on my phone... and to be honest, I am . The apps that I take up most of my time are, Snapchat with 2 hours and 50 minutes, Tik tok with 2 hours and 6 minutes , safari with 45 minutes and twitter with 30 minutes. I think that this shows that I need to take some time off of my phone as I don’t use it for anything that really benefits me. If you are the type of person that has a long screen time but it’s for a job or something that is used to benefit your future, then it is okay. But if it for something that is useless, try to stray away from whatever it is that you are doing. I am not here to tell you how to live your life or how to treat your kids once they ask for kids because when it is that tome for us, life will be totally different. I am just giving my personal opinion on what I will Possibly do with my kids because of the mistakes that I have made through my life time. Social media will never go away! Have fun and be safe with it.

Setting Time Aside to be Brilliant: Being Bored VS Confronting Ideas

In a recent school reading, Zomorodi discussed the idea that boredom can lead to productive thinking. The class disagreed. Let’s re-analyze the idea of “productive boredom” and see if we can maybe recategorize what that means.

Before getting into what this recategorization would look like, I should probably explain why boredom isn’t actually such a great thing. Zombodi talked about how being bored (as she was taking care of a baby and taking that baby on walks) forced her to mull over ideas and how that wound up being kind of brilliant. Having said that, there’s a difference between setting aside some time to process ideas (what those walks perhaps were) and being genuinely bored. Perhaps she was genuinely bored and perhaps that works for some people, but, even if we assume that it’s good for some people, boredom is terrible for others (such as myself, and apparently, my classmates, based on how much we all seemed to disagree with her.) Being left alone with one’s thoughts can allow one’s mind to stew in a cauldron of worry, analyzing the choices one’s made and questioning every little thing, ultimately, only serving to deepen and strengthen anxiety.

Maybe what we actually want, instead of boredom/ruminating self-doubt, is just to set aside certain amounts of time to work through certain ideas. And the idea of taking a walk is actually a pretty good way to do that, since it sets a time limit (the time it takes to go from A to B and back) and is active. I’m a fan of walking while thinking because, for one thing, it prevents me from getting too drowsy. The repetitive motion of walking forward just seems to help one to focus, sometimes. Perhaps that’s why movie characters always seem to pace around when they’re intensely pondering an idea.

But what does setting time aside to process stuff even mean, in terms of practice? Well, I’ve come up with four different ways that we could categorize the act of setting time aside to go over certain ideas. The first two are more to do with personal thoughts and feelings, while the second two are about slightly more technical roadblocks.

The first category, and perhaps the category that Zombodi unknowingly used while walking, is Unstructured Thinking Time. This one is especially good if you’ve been dealing with a very full plate and have been generally busy and/or stressed out. Just allow your mind to wander to all of the ideas you pushed back because you were too busy. How could things be better? Further explore those thoughts of improvement. What are some things you’d like to work towards? What are the steps you need to take to reach those goals you keep pushing out of your head because they seem unattainable and you just never have the time? There’s also a subcategory to Unstructured Thinking Time, and it’s literally just Daydreaming Time. Screw all of that “real” stuff—make a story in your head that you can project onto and use as a symbol of personal strength in your real life. It doesn’t have to be good; it just has to be fun, whatever that looks like for you. Daydream about what your life will be like when you’ve achieved those “unattainable goals.” Grab some earbuds and make a music video or animatic in your head as you walk. It should be fun, freeing, and creative, and you should let yourself roll with it.

The second category is Introspective Thinking Time. I know, I mentioned earlier how boredom induces introspection, and how that’s a bad thing. However, Introspection is only bad if it’s unstructured and out of control. If you set aside a limited time to work through certain feelings you’ve had, choices you’ve made, what you’re really looking for in life, and so on, then that can be healthy and productive.  Try to figure out why you’ve been feeling that way and how you can improve your situation, or if there’s something you’re missing, rather than just stewing in doubt. Make sure that there’s something else to do at the end of the time period you’ve set though, otherwise you may risk not being able to pull yourself out of that thought process. This one is best done in a private place, so it’s easier to let yourself be a little bit vulnerable, and cry or laugh or scream, if that’s what you need to do.

But not every issue in life is a strictly personal one, and that takes us to the third category: Problem-Solving Time. Maybe there’s unresolved tension of some kind between you and a friend or a co-worker, and it’s been seriously throwing off your mojo. Maybe you’ve been given a complicated project and you don’t know what to do for it. Maybe you’re just overwhelmed by everything everyone else needs you to do in general and you need to figure out how to get everything organized. When you see a character in a movie or a show pacing around after being confronted with an obstacle, this is the category they’re using, by the way.

The final category (that I’ve come up with) is Idea-Generation Time (not that any ideas are entirely new.) This is similar to the previous category, but while it focused on issues that come up in interaction and workload, this one focuses on creative thinking. If the Daydream subcategory and the Problem-Solving category were fused like Garnet, this would be that fusion. Maybe you’re trying to write a story, but you’ve hit a roadblock. Maybe you need to work past artist’s block. Maybe your lyrics don’t seem quite right. This one is all about setting some time to wander through those creative problems and try to formulate an idea of how to fix them. Try different things in your head for an hour or two, and maybe you’ll come back ready to productively create.

Of course, there are likely even more categories and subcategories that I just couldn’t think of for this. Different situations call for different approaches. However, these four are a good place to start, and are definitely a little different from simply being bored.

Social Media And The NFL Draft

Every year athletes being drafted, politicians running for office, or famous celebrities old posts on social media are exposed at the worst times for their career. Most of the time these posts are from at least five or six years before, but this doesn't exactly excuse the questionable posts. Just because Twitter was a completely savage form of social media in 2012 doesn't mean it was ok for someone to tweet something blatantly offensive. Although I say this, do we sometimes over-analyze what the post someone made as a twelve or thirteen year-old? Do they deserve to have a depletion of their career because of this behavior? Where is the line between forgivable and inexcusable? Throughout this blog I'm going to look at some cases separately and try to see if we can figure out what separates the extremities from the normalities and some other outside factors involved.

Patrick Mahomes

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EOIcvqlXsAAnAx_?format=jpg&name=large

So we all remember the shooting of Trayvon Martin and how questionable it was from Geirge Zimmerman's standpoint. Many of us had opinions on what had happened and many people discussed it online. One of those people being Patrick Mahomes in 2011. On December 27th of 2011, Patrick tweeted "stop resisting or assaulting a cop #realcops." This tweet was dug up and publicized right before the Super bowl, the biggest game of his life. I know at twelve years old I couldn't understand why something like this would or had happened not living around any reality of police violence, living outside of the inner city. Patrick grew up in Tyler, Texas a safe and simple town East of Dallas, which was actually the first certified retirement community in Texas. So I would assume he had no real experience with police violence, and never really wrapped his head around the realization of corrupt cops. This doesn't excuse Mahomes defending Zimmerman at this time. Should we bring this tweet, along with all the hate that comes with it at him right before the Super bowl besides his ignorance at the time?  I don't believe it was fair to bring up a tweet he said as a child nine-years prior. Patrick was wrong at the time but not deserving of the sudden punishment for something from years and years ago.

Josh Allen

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Josh_Allen.jpg

Josh Allen had multiple offensive tweets and retweets come up well before draft night. Some of these were straight up questionable regardless of age, these change the outlook from young and ignorant to what type of person or teammate is he? So when these teams are evaluating what kind of person this guy is going to be in the locker room these are obviously red flags. We all do a lot of growing up through high school and college but when there is millions of dollars on the line you can't make a risky decision that could make or break a franchise. Most of his tweets were obviously meant to be jokes and not to hurt anyone's feelings like the "if it ain't white it ain't right" tweet in response to someone asking why he's so white. The reference to a television show may have been appropriate in a small group setting where everyone knows what he's talking about (probably not still) but it doesn't exactly mean he is a racist to this day.
One tweet that is a big problem though is "punches beanie boy fa**** in throat", this could be a locker room problem if he tends to throw homophobic terms in the locker room. Something like that most likely wouldn't get out of the locker room but if it did it would give whatever team or franchise that chose to draft him look terrible. This tweet isn't a politically incorrect joke, it comes off violent and homophobic. The rest were pretty much retweets he made that the original account had the n word in, although the context of the n word wasn't the "harsh version" or implied any racism. After all of this came out Allen still took responsibility and apologized for his immaturities at the time. Although he did this these raise questions for the risk a team could be taking putting him in the locker room.

Nick Bosa

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Nick_Bosa_Jan_2019.jpg

In 2016 at the rise of Collin Kaepernick and other NFL athletes kneeling during the National Anthem to raise awareness of police brutality and other injustices the black community goes through, Nick Bosa tweeted "Kaepernick is a clown." Many Americans felt that these athletes were disrespecting America and the soldiers who are fighting over our freedom at this time. Lots of people were even boycotting the NFL and not watching their favorite teams because the NFL chose to let these players advocate these issues the way they did. Although this was a 'controversial' way to bring light to what was happening (and is still happening) in America, many players and people found it disrespectful that Nick Bosa was so verbal about how he felt about the situation. Understandingly players and American citizens felt as if Nick Bosa was being insensitive about what the players were advocating against, giving people a racist vibe. Maybe Nick Bosa felt strongly about respecting our nation and the troops but that doesn't give him viable reasoning as to not being aware of what many people in the black community experience. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion either way but once you have a platform or potential in a league with so much diversity, you can't treat Twitter as your diary. Bosa for obvious reasons is disliked around the league. 

In all honesty each of these players have grown to become successful and hopefully have been examples for younger guys to be careful what they're tweeting. In my opinion the reason we have had so many issues the last few years with instances like this is because originally Twitter was a 'savage platform.' Meaning many people put whatever the hell they wanted onto Twitter between 2010 and 2014. Lots of these players were thirteen to seventeen years old during this time. So essentially many players had controversial draft value because they treated Twitter as if it was a Snapchat group chat with their closest friends. Although I think people will become smarter, social media will continue to integrate it's way into sports and how we view players. This movement isn't all negative though, social media gives players a platform to speak for themselves and have a voice. As Lebron James would say, it gives them a chance to be "More Than An Athlete." Hopefully they will use the chance to better the world and their image unlike some that have made a poor portrayal of themselves.

Hustle Culture and Boredom

At the age of 21, I have experienced the overwhelming pressure of Rise and Grind/Hustle Culture firsthand. It is reinforced through the media we scroll through daily. Especially in college, the less sleep you have becomes an odd form of bragging. The harder you work, the more hours you take, the more credits you register for, the most successful you are able to see yourself as. Peers even congratulate one another with compliments of a work ethic that derives people of their interests, sleeping needs, and time for family. In this culture, the idea of being bored simply means you aren’t doing enough. The ideal worker in today’s generation is balancing school, work (or 2 jobs), and somehow finding time to take vacation trips, exercise, and maintain sanity.

This way of thinking is toxic not only to us now but to our future children. We must draw a line that divides hard working from overloaded. If this action is not taken, we begin to look like zombies who work the most and compete to exhaust ourselves for a gold star sticker. Manoush Zomorodi, author of Bored and Brilliant, explains the power and necessity of feeling bored and allowing the mind to wander on occasion. Not only does doing so facilitate the brain to consolidate memories better and revive exhausted cognitive abilities, but it feels great. Granted, this is something completely contrary to what we think of as productive. The consequences of acting against Hustle culture may be comments about laziness or a temporary decrease in self-esteem. It is important to remember that by being bored and not utilizing every minute of the day, which unfortunately means less screen time, your brain majorly benefits from taking a break.

As we all know, overcoming a cultural perception can be quite difficult. It requires a movement including a large mass of people to overturn thought and ideas we all share as well as long-term effort. Zomorodi, instead of trying to undo a cultural mindset, provides challenges for her readers to reduce screen time and become more aware of our tendency to fill every moment of the day with doing something.

It should be noted that decreasing screen time and technology dependency is only a small step in the direction of addressing Rise and Grind/Hustle culture. However, if you check your daily screen time average, you may find that you spend more than a few minutes each day, and closer to hours of time glancing, checking, scrolling, and liking. By freeing a portion of this time and instead allowing yourself to experience boredom, we will slow down our pace and become more active in the moment we are in rather than looking at the next task.

My most recent blog post provides a few examples of hobbies and why they are something we do not simply age out of. Zomorodi, on the other hand, created a set of challenges that will distance participants from technology in order to free their minds. Her first challenge is to observe yourself, mostly to place a baseline but also to become more aware of when and why we check our devices so often. There are dozens of apps, including Moment, which track your screen time, number of pick-ups, and allow you to see notifications about whether you are meeting your daily goal or not. During my experience with this challenge, I was forced to acknowledge that I would pick up my phone at least 40 times just by noon. Not all of these times did I spend scrolling through social media or texting. Usually I would check the weather or check the time. Admittedly, I also indulged in watching YouTube for far longer than I thought I had. This challenge places an emphasis on why we need to be bored and how reliant we are on putting our attention into something constantly.

In an article by Thrive Global, Jessica Hicks reinforces the idea that your time of connectivity doesn’t imply availability for work.  Further, she mentions how she sets rules on each of her devices and plans times when she puts them away for the night or checks her email less on the weekend. This can also contribute to a regular sleeping schedule uninterrupted by notifications. She elaborates on how growing up with technology, Millennials are taught that the accessibility provided through technology brings with it an expectation to be available and productive during all waking hours. Although this pressure can seem inescapable, it is essential to build habits now rather than facing burnout and being reactive later.

From trying out Zomorodi’s challenges to eating a meal without a device around, there are small practices that will contribute to still feel productive without being nonstop. Ultimately, this could lead to a restructured culture that focuses equally on taking care of your mental well-being and working toward goals.

Screen Time, First iPhones & Junior High

I remember one of the first days of this semester, we talked in class about when we received our first phone, and what it was. I remember in sixth grade when I was given my very first one. It was an iPhone four with a huge pink case to prevent me from inflicting damage as a twelve year old. I recall protecting the tiny computer with my life, never taking the bulky protective case off from fear of cracking my tiny screen. I felt obligated to, because I felt special to even have a phone in the first place.

Nowadays- and I don't want to shift the blame for having a phone at a young age- but... My little sister received her very first phone at eight years old on Christmas, and I was appalled. Why did our parents feel the need to let her obtain a tiny computer? What could she possibly need an iPhone for in second grade? There is no good reason.

Now for the reason I had my first phone. I was in a s*** ton of after school activities and my mother needed to know when and if she was picking me up from school or not. I'd say that registers a good enough reason to have a tiny computer. Looking back- I wish my phone would've come to me a little bit later because I lived less than a mile from the school. I could've also had a flip-phone rather than a device that could literally do everything for me. So, yeah- I was privileged. I have no other way of justifying my craving for a tiny computer at twelve years old.
So there! I've admitted my sins, what more could you want from me? Just kidding, I'm going to tell you about my little sister and why she should be the last person on Earth to have an iPhone. Let's go back to where it all started... Where I met Aspen...

Here's me with the phone-addicted-demon herself. If you look closely you can see the terror in my eyes.

That's her! I want to explain why I see Aspen the way that I do. She's not a bad kid by any means- but her attitude and decisions are very questionable as a (now) ten year old. I recall one situation during Christmas... My grandparents got her a $100 iTunes gift card because they don't know what ten year olds like nowadays. A week later, I came into her room and saw her playing Roblox... Out of curiosity, I asked her what kind of music she had bought so far with her money. I thought it would be innocent, you know- all the Katy Perry singles or the soundtrack for Frozen 2... But she told me... that she had spent it all on this game- Roblox. To buy coins so she could be rich on the game. I didn't know what to say, so I left the room. Shouldn't there be more regulation for something like this?? My little sister just wasted $100 of my grandparents money on a game that she will delete from her phone in two months! We need to take power. We need an age limit for iPhones!

So I found a great thing for setting an age limit for smartphones. It's updated. It's quirky. It has a good argument. Here it is! Check it out! I give to you the "Wait Until 8th" Campaign!!! I wish this was around before I got my phone. There's really no need to have a tiny computer before the age of 13-14. Junior High has an office phone for students to use. We've made it so far in the public school system without smartphones... Why are the ten year old gremlins demanding them now? I know it's because "everybody has one!" but who bought their half-developed brain kid the first smartphone? I think I know where it started. Theory: Parents get their iPhones updated, they don't know what to do with their sh*tty iPhone C's... So they think, "Okay, I'll just disable the texting and calling and give it to our only child in elementary so they won't bother me, hahaha." Then the kid takes it to school, shows it off and makes all the other gremlins jealous and then they go home, scream at their parents, and their parents give in and think that one more line on the phone plan wouldn't hurt. 

So. There's my take on tiny computers in kids pockets. Kids and smartphones don't mix. 

Screen time time! I want to talk about this because people are usually embarrassed by the amount of time they spend on their phones. I'm even embarrassed because it doesn't seem that we spend THAT much time on our phones... But here's my proof. 

As you can see, I spend a lot of time on messages and unsurprisingly TikTok. 

This is just from the beginning of the week, If I documented my time at the end of the week- there would be an influx of Spotify, TikTok and Pinterest. So my weekly average of time spent on my tiny computer is about four hours, but my boyfriend has a weekly average of six and a half hours total... which makes no sense because most of his time is spent with me. But the point is... What justifies why other people around me have about the same or more time spent on their phones? Maybe it’s because my friends have more free time than i do... and i spend my free time doing art or watching Netflix on the TV. 

So there’s a basic breakdown and formal informational piece on what i think of my sister, when kids should get phones, and my screen time info. 

My Not-So-Strange Addiction

This past week we read Williams’ excerpt on our smartphone addictions and his idea to test out the results if we all had an “iTrainer.” What is an iTrainer? Well, it doesn’t exist, or at least not yet, but basically it is an “impulsivity training device” that will expose all of us for how impulsive and weak-minded we are. The iTrainer would supply us with unlimited “informational rewards” on demand and would be a device small enough that we could keep in our pockets, like our phones, and would not go anywhere without it. It would be able to make sounds or even smells that we would instinctively recognize as new media content we are interested in popping up and distracting us from doing all our priorities while we call it a “short break” from our work. How many times have you started surfing your social media accounts, browsing content of people you follow in what you call a short or quick break from your priorities, and it turns into an hour affair and you can’t get back going on your work? I appreciate the honesty for all the people who would be raising their hands and if you wouldn’t raise your hand, you’re a big, fat LIAR!

So, recognizing that we all get distracted by our phones and the unlimited amount of content it holds with just a few taps from your thumbs, how the hell are we going to manage not being distracted by an iTrainer? The majority of us are already slaves to our phones, so the iTrainer in my opinion, would be disastrous. Williams mentions in his article what the results of the iTrainer would be on humans over the first ten years of its release. He believes 9 out of 10 would not be able to leave the house without it. Hell, he believes 9 out of 10 people wouldn’t be able to LIVE without it. There is no doubt in my mind that those would likely be the results. Why? Because 9 out of 10 of us right now probably couldn’t function without our phones. We already get notifications from apps, buzzing while we are taking notes in class or doing assignments, about content we will likely want to take a glimpse at. We are already slaves to our phones. 

I remember just a few years ago when someone wanted to be on their phone in class, they would text or snapchat with their phone under the desk, paranoid about being caught by the teacher, darting their eyes and jerking their necks around like they were about to spark up a joint in the woods, not wanting to be caught. Now, everybody is just openly on their phones while the professor is lecturing, not giving a shit about what is going on around them other than what is on their phone. We’re basically giving our teachers a big fat middle finger everyday during class. 

And by no means am I saying I’m innocent in all of this, I am just as guilty as everybody else. But the thing is, when we are on our phones in class, it can come off like a big “fuck you” to our professors, but the truth is, we CAN’T go 50 minutes without looking at something on our phones. We don’t want to disrespect our professors and give the impression like our professors are talking to a wall, but I think some of us can’t help it. We feel a buzz in our pockets, pull our phones out, see a text, respond to it, and since our phone is already out, we feel we must check what is going on on our social media. Maybe a major news story dropped, or someone posted a story that might make us laugh or smile. And before we know it, a half hour has gone by, class is over, and we have no idea what the hell we were lectured on. 

I think for me personally, I’ve gotten to the point where I am distracted by my phone in class, but somehow am retaining what was said in the lecture. I’ll leave class feeling like “damn, I didn’t listen to shit today” and then a couple days later, something will happen and I’ll think to myself, “oh shit, that’s kind of like what Vrooman was talking about in class the other day” which amazes me because I know I was reading ESPN articles for a portion of the class. I have been retaining information from class that I didn’t think I was listening to. However, I do not recommend this. The reason I am at this point is because I have been a slave to my phone for years, and honestly, I’ve barely noticed it. 

But it’s the truth, so let’s forget the iTrainer experiment, we got the results from the iPhone. We’re already slaves or zombies, whatever you want to call it, to our phones and it is because most of us are naturally impulsive. Some of us lay out a schedule for the day or week of what we are going to do, but how many of us can actually follow that to a tee? I know I can’t. So, I don’t know what the future will hold for this next generation of kids who are growing up in this content-rich era, but it doesn’t look like a cure for phone addiction is coming anytime soon.

Please Take My Phone Away From Me

The Guardian

Since the beginning of the age of cell phones, we youth have been criticized for constantly being dependent on our phones, and you know what? They’re totally right. 

Okay, so they may just be talking about me...

I have a phone problem. I didn't think it was that bad until I read a book called How To Break Up With Your Phone in my COMP 132 class, and I realized how much I hate being separated from my phone. I can't even walk downstairs to the kitchen to get a bottle of water without taking my phone with me.

So how did it get to this point?

I got my first cell phone in eighth grade. It was a slide-up keyboard kind of phone and I only used it to text my mom when I would travel for sports. Then, my freshman year of high school, I conveniently lost my phone in a Peter Piper Pizza (the Chuck E. Cheese of San Antonio). After that, my parents decided to replace it with an iPhone 6s. Now, this wasn't my first Apple product. I had an iPod touch already (and even an iPod Shuffle before that). So I was already familiar with an app layout. I used my iPod Touch to watch YouTube and play games. My only form of social media was Instagram at the time, since my mom never allowed me to have a MySpace or Facebook account.

So I guess it was my introduction to social media that started my phone addiction. Soon after I got my first iPhone, I created my first Twitter account. I considered it a fan account since I didn't use it to follow people I knew and instead followed YouTubers and celebrities I liked. Eventually I also got a Snapchat and now a TikTok (I'm still ashamed).

My addiction doesn't stop at social media. Netflix and Hulu has also consumed my time. I also read books from an app on my phone. Every once in a while I get addicted to a mobile game as well, but I quickly get bored of it and stop playing it.

The only time I don't pull my phone out is at work or classes that explicitly state in their syllabus that phones are not allowed. Meaning, I can't go a whole lecture without pulling my phone out at least once to check Twitter or send a text. When I'm watching a movie with my family, I pull out my phone. When I'm eating, I pull out my phone. When I'm at a party, I pull out my phone.

I will say I don't pull out my phone much when I'm with my boyfriend. Especially when we go on dates. It's never been made a rule by any of us, we've just never felt the inkling to pull it out when we're around each other. We even comment on it because we notice we're not like the other couples we see on Instagram or Snapchat who post their whole date. And I'm not trying to play the "we're not like other couples card." It's just something I've noticed because it's a huge accomplishment for me.

My average screen time per day is 6 hours. That's a quarter of my day that I spend on my phone. I get about 6-7 hours of sleep at night. So technically I spend less than half of my day in "the real world." It's quite alarming, but I have this mentality of "that's just how the world works now."

Is it?

Distraction is Inevitable, So Why Not Spice it Up?

               Everyone gets distracted. Of course no one in this world is able to just sit down and be at a point of maximum efficiency all the time for their entire life. But while distraction may be inevitable to a certain extent, there are countless ways to get distracted. James Williams discusses how phones, which are probably the first thing that came to your mind when I brought up distraction, are basically built to distract you as much as possible. However, there are more ways to get distracted. So, if it's going to happen anyway, why not add some variety?

                But here’s a quick disclaimer before I start talking about other ways you can rewire the ways you get distracted—I’m not saying that any of this is necessarily good or bad. I don’t think that phones are bad at all. They’re great or whatever, they’re just also distracting. And so is all of this! But maybe some of these things will let you be more efficient upon returning to your work than others. Maybe, with some of these, it’s easier to hop back into your work after a few minutes of allowing yourself to be distracted. Different stuff works for different entities!

                Have you ever tried pacing around in big circles for long periods of time? It’s great!

…Hey wait, come back, just listen!

                Sometimes, you just have to walk around your room and give yourself your own TED Talk. Sometimes you just have to walk around outside and let yourself work though all of those interesting, creative thoughts that are preventing you from focusing on far less interesting work. By the time you sit back down to work, it might be easier to focus, since you’ve let your mind run its course. The important thing, and the reason that I said to walk around in “big circles” is that the movement must be mindless. The only thing you should be doing is daydreaming, working through ideas, or trying to boost your own morale.

                Similarly, it’s easy to find yourself staring into space for long. Long. Looooong. Periods of time. I prefer the former to this one, as this one is less active, and, as it feels less like you’re giving yourself permission to take a little break, it feels like an accidental timewaster for me. But again, different things work for different people (and cryptids). Maybe the act of walking is a distraction for you, even if it’s being done in a repetitive way. If that’s the case, then this is the variant for you! But, if you’re able, try to be conscious of it. Move your head to stare up and think, “I need to let these thoughts run their course for a few minutes,” or “I need to explore this idea” or even “I just need to take a moment and reassure myself that I can do this.”

I know full-well that you’re probably going to see this one and roll your eyes at this. You’re going to think I sound like a cartoonish old person. But, if you’re still reading at this point, that means you heard me out when I told you to walk around in circles for fun, so you should be able to handle this, okay?

Books. There it is. Read a gosh dang book. Not something boring, unless you’re into that, I don’t judge. There are countless types of books, and if you just think reading is lame, it’s probably because you just haven’t found the genre, author, or writing style that’s exciting for you. James Patterson is great if you want supernatural teen drama, action, and themes of rebellion. Pseudonymous Bosch’s The Secret Series is great if you want something quirky and strange. Frankenstein is surprisingly fantastic if your dad is the actual worst and you need an outlet. Come up with some standards, and do some quick internet searches to find something that meets them. Books are a great distraction, because it’s easy to say, “I’ll let myself read ten pages, and then get back to work.” Well, unless the part you’re reading happens to end on a cliffhanger, then that particular method may not work. And comic books/graphic novels are, perhaps, even easier, because they’ve got visuals and usually take less time to finish reading. Though different, they’re equally respectable types of reading material, and you should feel no shame in going with whatever works best for you.

I’m kind of surprised that this next one isn’t more common, especially since this is something that most people probably do in class sometimes. Drawing, doodling, sketching, and venting your frustrations and stress onto a page are great distractions. All you have to do is keep some paper and a pencil nearby. In fact, you might even be able to do this while you’re working, if you’ve hit a mental roadblock and your hands are moving while you’re sorting that out. It’s fun, and there’s no pressure to be good or share what you’ve created—even just squiggling can be fun to do for a while before getting back to it.

                There are, of course, many, many other ways to get distracted while doing work, some being more healthy and productive than others. Tidying up your room! Making a snack! Getting really introspective while staring into space and either having an epiphany or a breakdown! But again, different things are best for different entities, and there's no one correct answer. Distractions are distractions any way you look at them, but they can still leave you feeling inspired, or assured, or even just little bit more ready to focus.

Reality of distractions

Another good discussion in class that really got me thinking about my situation on where I stand on this topic. As we were talking, Dr. Vrooman used the word Muppet, and I took away that it meant we were being controlled or pulled away from certain things in life such as our goals, happiness, friends, family,etc. In the reading from the class, Williams  talks about the informational technologies that has lots of power to pull all of us away from the good things in life. He mainly says that these devices take up majority our time which weakens our mind and drags us to another "goal" that is someone else's and not our very own. The thing distracting us the most is the little device that lights that grabs our attention so much. We are doing something that does not involve our phones and we are just sitting eager waiting to hear the buzz go off or see the phone light up and we finally have a reason to get on our devices and continue being on it for absolutely no reason. Lets face it, we sometimes  have an obsession with little thing that we can take everywhere in our pockets that has easy access at any time of the day. Isn't that the point of having a phone you ask?

I'd like to go back to the Muppet concept. In class I was asked what percent of muppet I was and I had to think about it and really see how much time I spend on my phone and how much time I am doing other things that don’t involve the use of a device such as a phone or computer. I said that I was about 50/50 and that the reason is because I find myself distracted on my phone a lot of the time when I know that it is not good for me to do so. On the other hand I am also a very busy person which helps me stray away from using technology to could be a negative factor in whatever I am trying to accomplish. For the most part during the school day, I find myself actually focused on my work and after that I play baseball so my day is usually taken up by that. By the time I am done, of course I want to relax and just look through all of my social media’s as a “reward” for just having a long day and I think that is something that majority of us kids do these days. Technology does not have to be a bad thing.

I think there are people out there that are a lot worse than me. The “phone zombies” are everywhere and can’t go a couple minutes without looking at their phone. These are the people that may shy away from their actual goals because they tend to get caught up in all the hype that revolves around that little screen lighting up in our pocket or countertop. There is a time and place where it is okay to be on it but for a lot of the kids in this generation, it is their everything. This makes us so used to talking to people on the phone that it is harder for us to talk to people in person and we have a higher chance of being anti-social with bad public speaking skills. If this is you, please try to stop! You are ruining this world. Lol just kidding but still, try not to be that person who can’t have a conversation because of something on your phone. This is not me trying to bash on everything the phone has to offer because quite frankly, it is something that we cannot live without at times. I think technology has come a very long way and we use it on a daily basis for good reasons. A lot of businesses would not be where they are today without the advantages of what social media had to offer. Life would be much more of a hassle if we did not have our devices handy as their are messages that we need to send people in case of emergencies and just to meet new people easier.

Long story short, I suggest that you go out and find things that you enjoy and are good at and just go out and interact with people without any form of technology being used. Have a good balance of the outside world and the world that you keep secret on your device at home and that will make you a much better person.

Am I (Wo)man or Am I A Muppet?

Hannah, GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!

The day that I got my first smartphone was the day that I started to get “distraction talks” from my mother. She would tell me to quit spending so much time on my phone, to get off Instagram, and that I had so many other better things I could be doing with my time. And honestly, she was right. She’s still right to this day, because after eight years of having an iPhone I still don’t know how to put it down. I’m sure everyone else who’s lived under their parent’s roof has heard the same spiel, whether it was about a phone, video games, or magazines. Parents and children have been having the same discussion for so many years. But are parents more right than they were before? Are we truly a more distracted generation than any other? 

http://bit.ly/38xjsLJ

TikTok...aka My Downfall

It’s no secret that phones are distracting machines and that a big part of this is because of  social media. Without social media, smartphones are pretty bland and boring. Social media creates a huge majority of the distractions that we experience on our phones everyday, and some platforms of social media are a lot more addicting than others. For me, if it wasn’t for TikTok I wouldn’t be spending nearly as much time on my phone as I do. The constant flow of creative content is easy to find myself being sucked in to, even when I don’t want to. Multiple times a day I find myself unconsciously opening the app and scrolling through. The addictiveness of the app contributes greatly to its popularity. 

There is a running joke on TikTok that everyone downloaded the app as a joke, got sucked in, and are now addicted to it. That’s definitely what happened to me, and because of this it’s contributed greatly to my overall addiction to social media. Before downloading TikTok I could go days and sometimes weeks without getting on social media. It was very common for me to purposely delete Instagram because I was bored with it and needed time away from my phone. Since downloading TikTok, I have only been able to do this maybe once or at most twice. I just can’t get away from my phone. I feel a need to check my phone and be on it more than I ever have before. I have also been able to feel and see the consequences of my addiction which makes me understand that my mom’s warnings are not really so crazy after all. 

http://bit.ly/muppetofaman 

Am I (Wo)man or Am I A Muppet?

As we talked about in class on Friday, my phone has made me become more of a muppet. It’s like my phone has control over me from the inside out and all of my actions are results of what my phone is telling me to do. Of course this isn’t as literal as it sounds, but my phone controls my choices and how I spend my time most of my days. Every now and then there will be a day where I’m busy or I’m just enjoying spending time in someone’s presence and my phone won’t even be on my mind. The one thing I am thankful for is that I’m not so addicted to my phone that I can still focus on real important things when they are present in my life. It’s on days where I have nothing to do and am laying in bed bored that I feel my need to satisfy my addiction most. Of course there are still days where I find myself hanging out with friends and I’m still glued to my phone. But unlike some people, I am usually able to quickly realize what I’m doing and pull away from my phone until I’m back at home or in a situation where it’s more appropriate. Honestly, when I recognize what I am doing it hurts me a lot because it makes me mad when other people do it to me so I know exactly what my friends are feeling when I do it to them. It makes me feel like a really crappy person. 

http://bit.ly/parentalcontrolspic

I Want to be a Great Parent

When it comes to distraction and our phones, I would say that pretty much all young millenials and Gen Z would ultimately agree with their parents that the distraction their phone causes them is hurting them more than helping them. We are a generation that has had an unlimited amount of comedic, creative, and explicit content thrown in our faces nonstop for years and years, and it’s not going to stop. As long as I am alive, I am going to have a constant stream of information from the internet always being thrown in my face. I will neve be able to escape it. While this is something that scares me, I have to be able to learn from my mistakes and those of my peers and prepare to be able to help my kids face the same issues that I have had because of the distractions from my phone. We are an experimental generation and I want to be able to harness the information that is found from us and be better equipped to help people in the future because technology is distracting and it’s only going to get worse.