Social Media Pitfalls

There are many social media platforms but the most popular is Facebook. Four years ago I was still against joining the connected millions but as fate would have it I eventually caved to the request of friends and family and joined. Looking back I think it may have been a huge mistake. No, I know it was.. Now, sadly, I can count myself among the facebook surfing addicted. An addiction by the way I am trying to break.

I experienced the same “honeymoon phase” most did when they first got a friend request from someone they hadn’t spoken to in years. Then another came and another and another…It was mind blowing for the first year or so. All these people I grew up with that I haven’t seen in decades, kids I spent hours with in Summertime as a child. Relatives I haven’t connected with in years and on and on…and then…………as with any relationship real life sets in and things don’t look so rosy. And lately they look downright bleak. 

I find Facebook these days as depressing and dividing as the nightly news which I also stopped watching about two years ago. Each time you log in your bombarded with the days most upsetting, angering and sometimes gruesome news out there. And yes, you can adjust your newsfeed settings to see only certain things but when ‘friends’ are posting what you don’t want to see it’s no longer hidden. 

I’ve also found that as a society in the quest to be more connected, social media has made us even more disconnected. For many, the days of the Saturday drop in on a friend for coffee are gone. The spontaneous “lets call so and so and have them over for dinner and a game or something” are gone. The porch sitting at the end of the day with neighbors are gone. Why? Because we’re all so virtually connected that we are physically disconnected. 

For myself, this addiction has taken away from things I used to like to do. Simple things in life such as , all of the above, reading, watching a good movie, crafting etc. Why? Because I’m addicted to social media and always have my eyes on the laptop screen or my phone. I have vowed to break this addiction. In reflecting on my time on social media I have come to some conclusions. 

• I don’t always need to be connected
• Being connected all the time makes the mind unable to relax
• I’ve wasted  a lot of time that could have been spent in better ways
• I’ve become lazy in my physical connections
• The majority of the people I haven’t spoken to in decades with the exception of a few hold no more importance in my life than before I knew “where they are now”
• Sometimes, the kids you were inseparable with as a child and this includes family as well, grew up to be people you couldn’t stand to sit in a room with for ten minutes. 
• The select few you have reconnected with surprised you because they turned out to be some of the nicest people you’ll ever know
• Those who you truly connect with and not in just a superficial virtual way will stick with you through email and phone calls even if you leave facebook.

The good things I’ve learned from being on social media?

• I’ve made a few old/new friendships that will last the rest of my life no matter where I am online or off
• Just how important being physically connected to those I care for is.

Having learned all this I will be trying very hard to get to the point of deleting my facebook account all together. Until then I will be choosing to spend my time more wisely.. How about you?

 

Saturday Snaps – Week In Review!

My goodness it’s been hot outside!! I don’t know about the rest of the country (I don’t watch the news) but here in South Carolina it’s been absolutely oppressing! This is what most of the week has looked like here but Friday and Saturday are supposed to be hotter and I keep asking God to turn down the sun just a little bit..

Monday was July 4th and honestly it was just too hot to do anything so we stayed in. I still hadn’t gone food shopping for the month which is late for me. Usually I go on the first but this month it’s just been so hot and humid that we didn’t really need anything that was urgent so I knew it could wait a few days.. 

I had planned on going on Tuesday but when I woke up Tuesday morning I wasn’t feeling all that well so I decided nah, I think I’ll take a “me” day and just rest. I could tell my body was screaming for it and so, thats exactly what I did.. I got out of bed for a cup of coffee, I had some ice cream, etc and spent the day on the couch and in bed besides taking a shower with a good book such as this one.

I admire Cardinal Robert Sarah for many reasons and have wanted to get this book for the longest time and I finally did. I thought Tuesday was a good day to crack it open and it was !.. I love it when sometimes, just sometimes a plan comes together. 

On Wednesday we had to take Alvin and Matty to the vet. Alvin needed his last puppy shot and Matty unfortunately has an ear infection again. We found out its yeast and also may be a chronic thing with his ears because of his hypothyroidism. So we are treating it and will probably always continue to do so. He’s an old boy and well, things start to break down whether you’re an animal or a human.. We deal…

On Thursday I had no choice but to get out and do the food shopping although I was NOT looking forward too it but we were starting to run out of staples. I made myself leave the house by 715 am and I had both Walmart and Costco all done by 11am just as it was really starting to heat up out there. 

Friday I planned on going to the local Food Lion to pick up our produce for the week. They have great produce and the produce at Walmart, well lets just say….. I wouldn’t feed that to anyone but we had thunderstorms roll through Thursday evening around Midnight and my biggest dogs are afraid of them so I was awake until 1 am and it seems Alvin is not afraid of them but he likes to be close and I mean ….CLOSE.. as  you can see here.. 

Yes, that is Alvin under the covers.He likes to sleep on my legs under the blankets..

Friday was also another scorcher as well so I was glad I didn’t go anywhere. This was the temp and heat index at 530 PM.

 

Yes, you read that right.. Feels like 112! and I can tell you it’s accurate because when I took Alvin out too potty I was begging him to get done because it was so hot and humid..

We are supposed to get more storms tonight (Friday) I am just hoping they come in early so I can get some sleep. I will have to get out early again tomorrow morning to Food Lion but then for the rest of the weekend we are hunkering down in the house in the air conditioning.. 

How was your week? Is it this hot or hotter by you?

Until next time 🙂 

 

This is my Friday Face

Yep and thats exactly what I look like too! 

Phew! It’s been some week.. Of course everything I did and everything that happened was unexpected. I’ve been told by some very holy priests that the Lord only gives His toughest battles to His warriors. Well this mama is one tired warrior.. 

I had not planned on going out today as I am still fighting this nasty sinus infection / virus thing that seems to be going around. My husband has had it for over a week and is on round two of antibiotics and I only started antibiotics this past Thursday so yeah, I have a ways to go yet. My plan was to stay in today, do as little as possible and rest. 

Ah.. the best laid plans of mice and men… Of course that didn’t happen. I ended up walking out the door at 8:45am. First stop was the bank, next was Walmart. Oh how I dislike going there but my husband insisted on me getting these compression copper gloves to see if they would help with the pain and swelling in my hands and fingers. Mainly the right hand. Well, I don’t know what these magic gloves are supposed to do but I didn’t feel nothin…they’re going back. 

Then it was off to Dollar Tree. I needed to get some cards, and a few small Valentine’s day gifts for friends and the hub plus he wanted me to pick up some more of those cookie sheets that they sell for a dollar. Have you seen these???? I am pretty shocked at the good quality they are for a buck. I only bought two because I didn’t know how many he wanted. He wants like ten, so I’ll have to go back which is okay with me because while there I saw that they had this rubber matte that you can put under small rugs to hold them in place. I should have grabbed it because I need one for the little rug near my front door but I forgot to get it. 

Then I saw this cute little crate and took that because I needed something to hold my eye shadow palettes in. What I originally had them in I am using in my office / guest room. The crate holds them all and doesn’t take up much room on my makeup table.

Lastly I needed to run down to the vet and pick up some more medications for Toby and Sarah. We still don’t know what kind of parasite they have as the test that was sent out on Tuesday still hasn’t come back but hopefully this medication will slow down the diarrhea. Yep, TMI sorry about that…Then it was on to home where I had to clean up the kitchen,  vacuum and wash the floors, and load the dishwasher. I took about an hour and a half nap this afternoon and when I got up, I sat for a bit had a little something to eat then had my mid afternoon coffee with some chocolate chip cookies an colored in my adult coloring book. Yes, Im 45 and I still like to color. Don’t judge!

Before I knew it, it was five PM and time to feed the four leggeds and cook for the hubs. Easy dinner tonight. Cheese dogs and onion rings. One of his favorites. We had so much rain here the last two days there’s a lot of mud outside so once again I had to vacuum the dining room and kitchen floors and run a wet swiffer over them. I cleaned up the dishes and washed down the counters and sink and now, yes I am tired!.

As for the rest of my night, I am going to watch the local news at six pm, spend some time with the Lord, take off my makeup and try and make a dent in the book I just started which by the way is a good read so far!..

Hope ya’ll had a good day!…

Life Interrupted.

Wow! It’s been a REALLY long time since I’ve put up a blog post.. Which, leads me to the subject I wanted to write about in this post..

I guess it was about a year ago I felt the need to make my life easier, much simpler. More peaceful.. I thought, it would be an easy task.. I mean c’mon.. How hard could that be right? It’s not like I’m trying to move a mountain or anything or… is it? I began the usual way most people do which is purging items we own.. in a word.. stuff!.. Just a side note, I am still doing that believe it or not and I’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff already.. I digress..

In the last months or so I realized that I don’t do the things I used to like to do such as , reading, needle work, watching old movies, playing a game of cards with my husband, “put posts up on my blog”. Things like this.. Simple things.. I asked myself why that was.. Did I suddenly dislike these things? No.. Did I now find them boring? No..So just what was it that was preventing me from doing the things I’ve so enjoyed in the past. After some long thought , no I’m not a fast thinker most times, I came to the conclusion.

I need to “unplug”.. For those who don’t know what I mean by “unplug”. it means I need to step back and far away from all things social media. Facebook which is supposed to be “social” but really when you think about it is “anti-social”. I will explain more why I say that if you’d like. I need to back away from Twitter, and a newly acquired online addiction, YouTube. Now don’t misunderstand me, I am in no way “anti-social media” but for myself and I am sure for a lot of other people, social media has taken over my life..Where I used to take time to de-stress by knitting, reading, watching a movie, praying, etc. I have now taken all the time I spent on those things which helped me in more ways than one and replaced it all by staring at screens of some sort or another most of the night..

Because of this pattern I’ve gotten myself into, I can also say I’ve lost my inner peace. My mind is constantly running amok from one thought to another. I can’t seem to concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes at a time. Im always checking “statuses” “Tweets” “Selfies” Videos”. And… it’s got to stop.  I have in the past been trying to pry myself away but it almost seems like an addiction. It works for maybe an hour at which time I am usually watching one of my favorite TV series on my DVR but once the show is over, I go right back to my laptop or phone.

So my questions to you are, Do you have this problem? How are you breaking the chain?

 

I’ve Gone To The Other Side

I finally did it. I did something I swore I would never do and it still eerks me inside that I did and part of me hates how much I love it!!

I broke down and bought an E-reader. I railed against E-readers for the longest time and for a few reason. One, I do love the feel of book in my hand. I love the feel of the pages, the feel of turning the pages to see what awaits me on the other side and two, as happens to all of us age is catching up with my eyes, my hands and my arms. 

Two weeks ago I bought a novel and it’s SO heavy so that I was having a really hard time reading it not only because my arms are not long enough to put the book at a distance that I could actually SEE the print (think Mr Magoo) but my hands, fingers and arms don’t have the strength they once did and just holding it was a, well lets just say it was a pain and leave it at that.. Literally. So I broke down and bought myself this!

Yep, that is a Kindle Paperwhite E-reader and as much as E-readers still make my skin crawl I have to admit, reluctantly, that I LOVE this gadget and I am not a gadget person but out of all the electronics I have, you know, computer,phone,etc. THIS little E-reader is my most favorite thing and I use it every single day.

Wouldn’t you know it, the novel I so want to finish reading? Isn’t available on Kindle yet.. Major fail, but I have found a lot of great books and will hold out until my novel is available. 

Do you have an E-reader? If so what kind? What do you love or not love about it? 

I've Gone To The Other Side

I finally did it. I did something I swore I would never do and it still eerks me inside that I did and part of me hates how much I love it!!

I broke down and bought an E-reader. I railed against E-readers for the longest time and for a few reason. One, I do love the feel of book in my hand. I love the feel of the pages, the feel of turning the pages to see what awaits me on the other side and two, as happens to all of us age is catching up with my eyes, my hands and my arms. 

Two weeks ago I bought a novel and it’s SO heavy so that I was having a really hard time reading it not only because my arms are not long enough to put the book at a distance that I could actually SEE the print (think Mr Magoo) but my hands, fingers and arms don’t have the strength they once did and just holding it was a, well lets just say it was a pain and leave it at that.. Literally. So I broke down and bought myself this!

Yep, that is a Kindle Paperwhite E-reader and as much as E-readers still make my skin crawl I have to admit, reluctantly, that I LOVE this gadget and I am not a gadget person but out of all the electronics I have, you know, computer,phone,etc. THIS little E-reader is my most favorite thing and I use it every single day.

Wouldn’t you know it, the novel I so want to finish reading? Isn’t available on Kindle yet.. Major fail, but I have found a lot of great books and will hold out until my novel is available. 

Do you have an E-reader? If so what kind? What do you love or not love about it?