Participate in Life

In the interest of managing my time better and making sure I'm more fully engaged with the people around me, I deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone.

Since I handle the social media at work, I can't completely avoid social media entirely. I see updates and tags and messages, etc. on Facebook but now I don't have easy access to them from my phone at all hours of the day.  I still have Instagram on my phone, but I am slowing down on it and trying to be a bit more judicious with the time I choose to spend on there. 

Maybe you've already seen this video...but, my sister posted this video to her Facebook page I saw today while at work. It speaks volumes about our society and our newest addictions. I also like it because it rhymes.  

Do you think our "looking down" at our devices keeps us from interacting? What steps are you taking to connect more in real life with the world around you?

Pocket-call protocol

You know those calls you get when someone sits on their phone or leans against their purse and accidentally dials your number? Some people call them pocket calls or butt dialing. I think I must get more of those than most people. With a name that begins with "Ba," my name must be near the top of the alphabetical list on most of my friends, family and acquaintances phone directory.

I don't mind getting random calls. In fact, when I get them as a phone message, I can't help but listen to most, if not all of the message. For some reason I think I might actually hear some juicy bit of information that wasn't meant for my ears. Like maybe the person calling will reveal how they really feel about me...or I'll hear some other sort of sordid detail that they want to keep hidden from the world. I'm like a rubbernecker passing a four-car pileup on the highway. I can't stop myself from listening to the whole muffled, jumbled and indiscernible message. Why can't I just hear the first few seconds and hit delete?

One day, my sister pocket dialed me about five times in a row. I stopped answering after the third one. What's the protocol here? Do I send her a text and tell her to lock her keypad? Do I call her back and leave a message that she needs to not lean on her phone so hard? Well...what do you do?