The Generational Problem with Texting

The constant availability and accessibility to cell phones and technology have bred a needy generation and it drives me NUTS.

If you're not in contact with your (potential) significant other, naturally there must be something wrong. Right?! He must be upset. I probably did something to make him mad and he never wants to talk to me again. No, wait, maybe he got kidnapped or died. Something serious must have happened to him. What?! NO. Stop. Just STOP.

Maybe he just has a life or doesn't have his phone on him or is taking a test. Maybe he's sleeping or at work or in the middle of something. Maybe, just maybe, it has nothing to do with you, and it definitely shouldn't be blown out of proportion. Yet, it happens to the best of us sometimes. As logical and rational as we try to be, sometimes our minds can't help but jump to ridiculous conclusions. I have actually watched this ruin relationships. People have broken up over this! People have gotten in fights and lost friends over this! One little miscommunication, one hundred assumptions later and the relationship is toast. How did we get here?

Thirty years ago, this wasn't a problem! There were no cell phones with unlimited texting or Facebook messages. If you were interested in getting to know someone, you called them and asked them on a date. And then you WAITED until Friday came around, and you spent your time in each other's company. If you enjoyed it, you planned another date, and crazy enough, you probably didn't even hear from them until that second date came around! 

Serious conversations are happening over text and social media, being misread and tearing people apart. A lot of people are lacking the skills and courage they need to actually communicate face-to-face. Yet, for some reason, technology and our society has made us think that we need to be in constant contact with each other, that you should always be on your phone or by your phone and that there must be a problem if your relationship isn't like this. The worst part is, most of it is subconscious and we (myself included) often have to talk our emotions and crazy thoughts down. We KNOW we're being ridiculous, and for some reason, we can't stop our minds from jumping there.

But please, next time, take a deep breath (or ten). Think long and hard before you text them a million times to see if they got hit by a car. Talk yourself through it before you delete their number and block him on all forms of social media, or before you text all of their roommates to see where they disappeared to. Be confident in what you have. If it is a real issue, discuss it with them next time you see them. But TRUST each other and stop second-guessing your relationship over an unanswered text. You'll thank yourself in the long-run, I promise. 

(http://elitedaily.com/women/guy-doesnt-text-back/854321/ Enjoy, but please excuse the language.)

Church on your Phone?

Lately, I've noticed a frequently recurring topic on my mind. People sitting on their phones through all of church. Do I do this? Does it bother me when other people do it? Do people watch me when I do it? Is it such a terrible thing if I do?

I've spent a lot of time evaluating my own choices and habits since the last General Conference or so. I don't remember what triggered it, but I remember thinking that I was getting too distracted during church by my own phone and that I wasn't leaving church feeling very enlightened or uplifted. I spent a couple weeks of church completely phone-less to break habits - Well, except for using the scriptures, so I just put my phone on airplane mode. Over all, I have seen some definite improvement since then, but I still have some room for improvement.

At the beginning of the semester, I rededicated myself to this goal of focusing more and using my phone less. Then, I started noticing others around me making very upset comments about how fed up they were with people who spent all their time ignoring speakers and teachers and disrespecting them by using their phones right in front of them. It especially hit me when a guy I've been dating told me that the most annoying thing to him about church and singles wards is when people are on their phones during church and explained to me just how much he hates it. I had already made an improvement in my own habits, but this just pushed me again to do even better, because I never wanted to be one of "those people" that was distracting people around me (even though it doesn't usually distract me when others around me are doing it).

I have been pleasantly surprised about how much I have gotten out of church the past few weeks by staying off of all social media during church. I mean, I still check my texts and respond during the breaks between classes, so that I'm not sitting through three hours of class distracted by the thought that I might have important texts waiting for me, but that's a whole other problem of its own that I need to work on. 

Music Nostalgia

The past few days, I've found myself pondering the incredible power that music holds in my life. It blows my mind that 5 seconds into a song, I find myself thrown years back in a memory I had forgotten even exists. I often find people close to me laughing at my now typical reaction when someone plays an old song - "Ah, 8th grade!" or "Ah, Russia!"

I've noticed that periods of my life are separated by music. Each song is connected to a person I was spending time with, a party, a memory, a trip or the country I was living in at the time. It's an instant reminder of those memories, often with incredible detail.

Even now, I sit here listening to my favorite Coldplay songs and I find myself back in middle school and early high school, back to years of struggling with insomnia and anxiety. For a long time, I had to play songs in order to fall asleep, and Coldplay was always my go-to. It's been years since then, years of listening to these songs, yet they still hold the same eerie, but calming feeling. It's a reminder of my struggles, but still has the ability to calm me down and think about life.

I know music doesn't play such a huge role in everyone else's lives, but I honestly have a hard time even going a few hours without listening to music to relax or moderate my mood. Music has really been a life-saver for me throughout the years and its power continues to intrigue me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9b6jgbNyc

Super Bowl Commercials

After our class discussion on advertising last week, I couldn't help but think more into the ads and commercials that were played during the Super Bowl. Honestly, half of the people I knew watching the game (myself) included, were only watching for the commercials and the halftime show.

Based on the amount of money companies spend on their Super Bowl time, you'd think that all of the commercials would be incredible! However, I don't think that most of the commercials met that expectation this year. After the game, I went over to some friends' apartment and they asked which commercials played and which ones we should re-watch on YouTube. I really couldn't think of all that many, which isn't a great sign. I did remember all of the really weird ones though, as well as the funny ones (most of which were only funny because of how weird they were) and the very serious ones.

I'd say that this one was probably the biggest hit among the two groups that I watched with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko7GuDOv4BM