The World is Out There

Ahhhhhhh it is a beautiful Friday afternoon and I have nothing left on my agenda for the day. It is one of the first 70 degree sunshiny days in who knows how long and I just want to be outside with my friends and go on adventures. Unfortunately, most of my friends have packed Friday afternoons that include practices, work, homework, class, etc. So where does that leave me? Sitting on the internet, scrolling through Pinterest and looking up potential workout ideas and crafts for me to do. As I gaze out the window and think how beautiful and perfect it is outside, I look down at my screen and continue scrolling. Why? Why, when my friends are busy and I have nothing to do, do I consistently find myself on my computer or on my phone to kill time? The internet for me is a huge filler and a bad habit that I have developed. IT IS 70 DEGREES OUTSIDE WITH SUNSHINE EVERYWHERE WHY AM I WASTING THIS DAY INSIDE ON MY COMPUTER. One thing that I want to do is start weening myself off of the internet and stop using it as a filler. And I want to strongly encourage everyone to take a step back and look at the reasons why we are using the internet, how we are using it, and when we are using it and to ask ourselves "Do I really need to be on the internet right now?"
One joke that a couple of my friends and I say to each other when one has been excessively on the cell phone while we hangout out is "The world's out here pal!" and it helps us to realize how we are setting our priorities. All in all, I just want to remind everyone, 
the world is out there. 
enjoy it.

Is it Me or is it the Media?

As I was reading the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr for class the other day, I found myself sadly relating to his words.

 I, too, find my brain and the way I think to be changing. I use to love reading books for fun, diving into detailed imagery, placing myself into the scenes I was reading, and understanding the words that I chose to drown myself with. It was relaxing and exciting to me. Now, it is hard for me to pick up a book and read 10 pages at a time or even to begin reading at all. I have noticed that as I get older, I am less patient and more easily distracted, but after reading this article it makes me wonder-- is it just me or has the media helped shape me in this way?

It really is a struggle, and a sad struggle at that. I have trained my mind to skim through pages and pages of information in order to find what best fits the purpose of me even reading the text to begin with. The last book I read for leisure, I remember having to keep refocusing my mind and training my eyes to read one line at a time as they always wanted to keep reading ahead before my mind could process what words I had already read. I was reading for fun, yet my mind did not understand that anymore, and instead kept resorting to the skimming process as if I was in a rush to finish. This "retraining" in itself exhausted me. 
I can spend hours reading an article that was assigned to me for homework, take notes on the article, and when it came time to discuss it in class, have no recollection of what I read or wrote about at all. It has all become sort of "going through the motions" to me and I do not like it. I have never been that type of person. If I am doing something, I want to be fully engaged and perform at my best. Now, I see this "going through the motion" feeling to be a very challenging concept to accept and change in my life. We live in a fast-paced, time-focused society these days and it is making life pass by in the blink of an eye and here we are spending little time enjoying it. 
Although it is easy to have access to anything we want to know, I believe it is still important to learn and to live life. I miss my young mind, the mind that was eager to learn new things, read every single word in a 500 paged book, read the next book of the series, and the next and the next. I miss the me that use to spend time understanding concepts I did not understand and work at perfecting things I struggled with. And this is something I struggle with: having the new me overtake the factors I loved about myself while I was younger. And this is something that I am going to work on. It is time for me to retrain my mind to think like a child again and stop going through the motions. It is time to live life and live it with a purpose.  

"Ok, Google"

"Ok, Google.."

I hear these two words way too often when I am with my brother or a select few friends.

If opening one's phone and typing into the search bar a question is too much work, the Samsung Android helps make google searching a much more simple task than it already was: all someone has to do is speak to their Android the words "Ok, Google" and the phone is ready to search for any sort of question we have to throw at it. 

Pretty neat, huh?

My brother use to brag to me about how cool his phone was because he just had to speak to it to find answers he wanted. Meanwhile, I thought he just looked dumb speaking to his phone like he actually had friends or something (but that's beside the point). 

Is that what technology is coming to though? How to search for answers in the quickest, most effortless ways?

Not only does Google make it easy to browse through results, but also to share information through Google Docs, communicate with people through Google Hangouts and much more. Sure, there are other websites or apps that allow us to do those things as well, but they aren't Google and Google makes things easy to work with.

What's the next big thing Google is going to come out with to help make our lives easier? I mean if we are being real with ourselves, we aren't addicted to Google... we just want more and what's wrong with that? :)

If I do not know how to cook, I've got Google there to back me up and YouTube to show me how. If I do not know how to do laundry, Google will give me suggestions on which detergent will do the job or even places to take my laundry. If I can't beat a level in my latest video game, I will just watch a tutorial or find all the cheats. Life is much more simple when I have a friend like Google helping me out. 

"Ok, Google... help me with my Life."

But, is that what we really want? Are we ok with letting Google have this sort of control over our lives? Maybe we need to slow it down some and look at how much we actually rely on Google. 

My Reaction to Fred First

“ I think this was my core need—to listen to others and to be heard, and to make a difference, to be a part of something. ” -Fred First

While looking over the selection of blog interviews, it was difficult for me to decide what blog interview to write about or even where I should start. I decided to begin by reading the quotes that were emphasized in the different entries. Out of all the great quotes stated, this one seemed to be one that most caught my attention. After all, who can't relate to the desire to listen, be heard, make a difference, and be part of something? All I know is that I connected to this quote in an instant. 

After diving into the interview and reading through the questions, I realized that I related well to many points Fred discussed throughout his responses. I appreciate the fact that he started writing his blog because he just needed to vent, as he freely discussed his frustrations and personal issues in life. Without him realizing it, he was helping people going through the same problems and was getting responses in return. This to me is very powerful and shows how important it is for people to realize that we are not alone in our struggles of life, and we can look to various places for support as well as encourage others who may need a boost. Although Fred mentions he does not get a ton of views on his blog entries, at least some people are being impacted. 

One other section of the interview that intrigued me was Fred's response to why he blogs. He states "I blog to better connect me with me, with you, with the me I'll be ten years down the road, and with those who come after." Blogging has become a part of life for Fred and it helps him to understand himself, connect with people, and allows him to look back at his life in the future and share his life moments with other people. This, to me, is great. How crazy is it that one day he will be able to look back at his blog entries 20 years from now and see how he persevered through trials or revisit the greatest memories he documented? And people all over the world can look at his stories and be inspired, or learn from him. This is how Fred is making a difference. Be a part of something.