Finding joy in the everyday

Source A 2015 report (by Sensis) found that Australians now spend on average of 8.5 hours a week on Facebook alone. 24% checking social media more than five times a day. Seven in ten people used a smartphone to access their accounts.  While the U.S. did not lead global markets in terms of amount of time spent on social media networks, it was far and away the highest consumer of monthly data, spending the most time per day on their phones with a staggering 4.7 hours. Considering that the average American is awake for just over 15 hours a day (seeing as we sleep for an average of eight hours and 42 minutes), this means that we spend approximately a third of our time on our phones. ( source ) According to a CNN article from 2015, " Tweens, identified as children 8 to 12, spend about six hours, on average, consuming media. Some 13-year-olds check social media 100 times a day".  ( source ) If social media is a problem or becoming a problem—here are 5 things ...

Blair McMillan, his girlfriend and two children have given up any and all forms of technology released to the world after 1986.That means no mobile phones, no internet, no Facebook, no email, no Twitter, no DVD players, no CDs, no mp3 players, few, if any, colour computers. No online banking. No digital cameras. No cable TV. No Nintendo 64. No Xbox. No PlayStation. Music will be played either through a radio or cassette tape. Looking at photos of people on other people's phones has also been banned. The only approved TV shows and video games were ones that aired on or before 1986. Source: news.com.au What do you think? Could you stop using modern technology? The answer is no for me - I love internet banking, I love being able to stay in touch with people and "chat" online, I love having so much knowledge at my finger tips, I love listening to my music on the iPod, having a phone with me whenever I need it, shopping online.  I see no reason to "go back i...

A few years ago I owned a mobile phone - a bit like the one in the picture above, I used it to make phone calls and that was about it.  I was pretty content with this as I can remember when we never had mobile phones at all. Then appearing on the market was a new phone called the "smart phone". Wow, this one could do almost everything but wash the dishes. With my phone contract expired I moved to the latest smart phone. I could make phone calls, I could surf the net, play games, take photos, read books - it was amazing.  I wondered how I ever coped with a phone that couldn't do all these things. What did I do whilst waiting in a queue, now I can read a book or play a game to fill in the time. Maybe I spoke to the person next to me, I can't remember. I use to have shelves full of music CDs and when I wanted to listen to music in the car I would select a couple of CDs and take them with me. But then a new devise was invented, this was another wow moment.  ...

Are you a gadget person, I will confess that I am.  When I see the latest piece of technology I do get a little excited and find a reason why I should buy it.  However I am not quite as bad in the kitchen as I have learnt the hard way - buy a kitchen gadget and within a few months the excitement has worn off and the item is tucked away all cosy in the cupboard and won't see much light for many months . . . years . . . ever!!! I have been reading And He Dwelt Among Us by A. W. Tozer and particularly liked his comments regarding gadgets.  Now Tozer died in 1963, so the gadgets we have today such as computers and the many "labour saving" devices in our homes had not been invented.  However when I read his views on gadgets, it could have been written today in 2011.   How excited we (I certainly do) get when we buy a new gadget for the kitchen and it does the job much quicker . . .  faster than what our grandmothers could have done with the same task in...

  While I was away my family called and text me on a very regular basis, wanting to tell me about their day, share their grumps or wanting to know where to find XY&Z.  It is lovely to be wanted and needed but there were times when I wanted to turn the phone off!!  I don’t always answer at once, e.g. during meals or outings as I think this is rude, as a result my family did have to wait on occasions. My mother made a comment about the evils of mobile phones and its affects on society and it got me thinking, could I live without a phone, the answer is yes, but in our hectic world and it wouldn’t take long before I would really miss it.  I have lost count of the number of times I have rung my husband from the hardware shop telling him I can’t find the item he has sent me to buy!  It also is useful when visiting MacDonalds ( shhh don’t tell anyone ) and phoning up children to find out what they want.   But on a more serious note, it keeps me in touch...