Five Days Auto-correcting

Well, it is almost a week since I've posted or even looked at Facebook, or Twitter or Instagram.  Five days to be exact.  Just two more days and I'll have made it a whole week.  I'm doing this in an attempt to "auto-correct" myself a bit in the hopes that in the future I'll be making better use of my free time and not wasting it by looking at how wonderful or miserable some people's lives are, learning about the latest tragedy or even chuckling at a semi-funny video of some cat dancing.

It hasn't been easy and even now I am tempted to check out the "21" notifications waiting for me when I click on the Facebook icon, but I will continue until Thursday just to say I've done it.  That video I posted a week or so ago really hit home with me, and I know that part of the reason I get stressed out so much over having too much to do and never getting it done is that I waste too much time on the 'social network.'

So for any of my Facebook friends who may read this (these posts are automatically posted over there!), yes, I've been staying way on purpose, and I'll be back soon.  But I do hope that some of you will take a look at that video sometime and give it a shot, as well.  I can't honestly say that my life has been more productive these past five days because of it, but really it feels pretty good to not feel like I have to click "like" on something or make a comment on somebody's cute picture of their kid.  Yeah, that stuff takes up a lot of time.  

I really do enjoy it, but sometimes it's just too much and I want to make a statement.  Life is too short and I don't want to look back and say I wasted the equivalent of four years of my life looking at not only Facebook, but Twitter and Instagram, as well.  Just two more days...

Then, who knows?  Can I keep it all to a minimum and maybe get back to living?  We shall see...

Auto-Correcting Myself?

Do you ever talk to anybody about your depression?

That was my friend Frank earlier tonight, via Facebook messenger.  It was a private message to me, but it may as well have been a public one.  His words were in response to a new profile picture I had posted earlier today...the one you see above, which was actually taken two years ago.  I posted it simply because I wanted a change from my old picture, and there aren't any new ones I've taken lately, so voila.  Only what I hadn't realized was that the look of the picture reflected the mood, or the aura, that's been surrounding me lately, especially tonight, in this moment, and maybe I unknowingly put it up there for a reason.  

There was another friend of mine who commented on the same picture earlier than Frank.  He said that he didn't like it, that the look on my face wasn't a happy one like so many of the others I've put up in the past.  Well, now that it's there and I realize it sends a message I want to send, I am going to leave it until whatever dark cloud that permeates my aura and my mind goes away.

Maybe I am depressed.  Feeling sorry for myself?  Not really this time around.  I've just been questioning life in general a lot lately, especially after the deaths of two young people I was somewhat connected to, both just yesterday, and for no apparent purpose.  I think I've lost faith, faith in the world, faith in a Higher Being, faith in my fellow man, faith that doing good will get you good. 

When things are going bad, every little thing exacerbates the problems.  There've been a lot of things in my life lately that have done just that, and I don't know how to fix them and so I feel somewhat hopeless.  I feel stagnant, stuck in the mud I know I've partially created and not knowing how or not seeing any way out of it.  And the mud permeates every facet of my life, from work to home to my relationships with friends and family and my lack of finding my other half.  

Yes, it sucks, but I'm not putting this out there for anyone to feel sorry for me.  Writing is actually therapy for me, and even though I leave myself vulnerable by doing this, maybe someone out there will read this and know they're not the only ones feeling these feelings, and that's a good thing!  

I think subliminally I posted that picture because I've been thinking of taking a total break from Facebook and other so-called "social media," and the picture in a way shows my disdain for this so-called reality that is not all that real.  Ever since I posted that video on "Auto-Correcting Humanity" the other day (which, by the way I shared with my students), I've been doing a lot of thinking on the subject.  

The problems with humanity today that are discussed in the video are all very real and sadly very widespread throughout our society.  People don't relate to one another in personal ways like they used to, but relate instead to that tiny little thingamajig in their hand rather than the person right in front of them. 

In discussions with other people about the video, I've found that I've gotten plenty of nods, as if to acknowledge the problems that exist.  But no one seems to want to change.  Including myself.  I find it monumentally difficult to change.  Yes, I've lost faith in my fellow man, but can I gain it back again for myself, as well?  

I realize this is part of what burdens me, what this one or that one posted on Facebook, questioning the meaning behind a text, how many likes did I get for my picture on Instagram, how many followers I've gained and lost on Twitter...so many things.  Social media does have a purpose, and a good one at that, but it should never get in the way of living.

Maybe a way out of the mud would be to change my online habits, even a little bit.  In conjunction with what I learned about not stressing over the little things from my conversation with the same Frank a couple of weeks ago and seeing a connection between my darkly clouded mind and spending so much of my precious time wasted on my virtual "connections" to the world, I want to pull back in a meaningful way.  I'm not sure when or how long or what form that will take, but soon.  

Though I will pull back from Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all things cell phone for a spell, I will continue to post here.  After all, I'm working on a life story...

Stay tuned...   

Auto-Correcting Humanity? - Yeah!

Do you know that the average person spends 

around four years of his life looking down at his cell phone?

washingtontimes

A friend of mine shared this video with me recently, telling me that she couldn't help but think of me when she watched it. You see, I instituted a new rule in my class this year concerning cell phones. As you can imagine, these devices have become a huge distraction in the process of teaching and learning and kids are not the only ones affected by it.

So many I's, so many selfies,

not enough us's and we's

You see, technology has made us 

more selfish and separate than ever! 

This year, my new rule aims to curb that huge distraction that comes with texting and Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram, and all of the other things that have become the new, sad norm to how we socialize with each other. When a student is caught using their cell phone in my classroom without permission, all of the students in the class must hand theirs in for the period, not just the student in question.  The end result is the students' anger is towards the one person who committed the offense and not me, thereby curbing the use of the tiny handheld computers that are so, well, everywhere!  I've been sharing some of my biggest takes on Facebook...

Cell phones and iPads and such have become a problem not only for our children learning in school, but for all of us.  That once faraway notion of virtual reality has slowly but surely creeped up into the very backbone of our collective psyches and I think it's all for the worst...

We sit at home on our computers

measuring self-worth by numbers of 

friends, followers and likes.

Back to the video...I watched the entirety of the three minutes and twenty seven seconds of truth that day, not once, but several times, every word attesting to the sad truth that has become our society and our world today.  Although I've attempted to curb the problem in my classroom, it doesn't stop with children. We're all guilty of much of what is said in the video, including myself.

The attention span of the average adult today

is 1 second lower than that of a goldfish.    

I believe that, unfortunately.  I see firsthand everyday, and I know you all do, too, how people are consistently distracted by the little electronic device in their hand.  At parties, during bowling night, and even at times when I'm spending time with just one other person, attention is never 100% on the here and now.  There's always one eye and one ear out for a ring or a chime or a flash on a screen to tell us that somebody poked us or another want to be our "friend."  It's pretty sad, no?

Anyway, I have already begun to try to do my part in making it better before it's too late.  My Facebook visits, and posts have decidedly become less, and so has my activity on Twitter and Instagram.  If it weren't for sharing these posts in those places, I'd probably be daring enough to say that that would be it for awhile, even if for a week.

So anyway, take a look and a listen to what this dude has to say.  That is, if you could keep your attention on it for that long.  He makes a lot of sense!  Perhaps all of this is part of what I said that I was beginning to get onto something here the other day.  Maybe part of what keeps my mind so occupied and so stressed all the time has to do with my own affliction for social media.  I should post a picture of this great dinner, or I gotta answer that notification.  Ugh!  Maybe making a conscious effort to curb my online habits will leave me time for more important, and real, things to do with my time.  Can it hurt that much?  We shall see...