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.