Technology has obviously made our lives a lot easier. From mapping out directions to googling anything and everything we can think of, we pretty much have it made. Does any of that make us lazy??

I ask because I recently came across an article on Time Magazine talking about how “lazy” our generation is. How we wait to move out of our parent’s house till we’re thirty and rather get an education as opposed to starting a family or joining the army. This article was published in 2013, but 3 years later of course it’s still very relevant. Yes this was also written by a man in his 40s.

He has some good points on how we can be narcissistic and feel entitled to certain things and how technology has kept us connected with others all day long but we also lack the ability to interact with those people face to face.

Is technology to blame for us being “lazy” or entitled? No. It’s not our fault we were born in an age when it started booming. If this had happened in any other era, our textbooks would be filled with selfies and whatnot. And maybe even with more of an insight into what politicians and other important figures had thought about certain situations. If only Facebook had been invented back then right?

I am a part of this generation and I don’t consider myself to be lazy. I work full time and attend school full time as well. It is not easy. On my free time I’m either helping out at the tv station at school trying to gain extra credit, filming at baseball games for extra cash or in bed trying to nap. And I have many peers who can say the same for themselves and many who cannot. We are all different and come from many different backgrounds but I do not consider any of us lazy. If anything, most of us have to work harder for what we want.

Here’s a link to the article. I encourage you guys to read this.

   

http://www.prjohnsonenglish.org/uploads/5/3/8/5/5385246/millennials_themememegeneration.pdf

Technology is widely blamed for our lack of exercise. Kids these days rarely go outside to play. Instead they play on their IPad. And yet technology itself has become a huge part of fitness. There’s wristbands and watches that can now track our heart rates and let us know how many miles we walk in a day. A friend of mine had a watch that would keep track of his heart rate. We were smoking cigarettes one day and we used it to see how much one cigarette would affect our heart. And sure enough it did. It was fascinating but mostly amusing. If there’s anything good that comes out of fitness type technology, it’s that it gave us the ability to “connect” with our bodies. We pay attention to how we take care of it more. But it is very time consuming, as you have to keep up with inputting all this information (like if you have apps and such).

As much as I like going to the gym, I don’t own any of these fitness products. No particular reason, I just don’t have anything. But when I work out, I cannot do it without music. Head phones in, world out. I don’t know if it’s cause I rather not be bothered or what but I can’t do it unless I have my music with me. For those 1 or 2 hours, I need it and I think that’s my main attachment with technology. I will not go out for a run unless I have my headphones and music with me. I refuse!!  It separates me, puts me in the zone so I can exercise in front of all these people without feeling awkward that I probably look awkward.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like this. Are there any people out there that do use any products like this?? Do any of these products help you stay healthy or maintain a healthy lifestyle?? Or is it just a distraction?? 

Where does everybody get their news from these days? Ask anybody most would just say Facebook. It's so convenient. Thanks to all the pages I follow and friends I have, I'm pretty up to date on most world news.

My last blog post I promised I would try getting just newspapers for my news. I must say I've become so used to the expediency that is provided by our smart phones and social media.I never realized how impatient I can be. Reading newspapers is definitely not my favorite thing to do. It's a dying profession. And trying to find quarters everyday for it to catch every morning takes a toll on my laundry money but at least I helped out the paper guy on the corner make some. I felt slow. And to be honest the only thing that really caught my attention was big headline news or "front page" stuff. Sports and weather; sorry but I never got that far. If I really wanna put that effort to not use my phone as much then yeah it would be something I can get used to, but it's the lack of expediency that gets to me. I am not a patient person. I want my news now. I think that is also an effect of what smart phones and internet have done to us. Seriously, who even reads real magazines anymore when everything you want to know about a celebrity or entertainment, you can easily google.

I went an entire month without a phone. It was fun and interesting while it lasted. But I had to get one again since I had to take a trip to Dallas. I didn’t want to risk anything happening on the way over there or getting lost in general. San Antonio is whatever; I’ve been there so many times I almost know it (sort of). Dallas is farther and unfamiliar to me.

It’s nothing fancy though. The camera sucks and I don’t have any apps on it which is probably a good thing so I don’t waste the majority of my day just looking at my phone. I miss “going off the radar” like that. It’s like a mini vacation cause nobody can bother you cause you’re unreachable. But I’m reachable again.

 SIGH.

I get a lot of my news through Facebook or CNN but I can’t really remember the last time I read a newspaper. I’m gonna try it out for this coming week just getting my news from that so we’ll see how that goes.