Okay, I will admit, I am probably a bit chronically online. I am 26, so I can remember times without the internet so readily available. Still, I also remember the days when I went down to the family computer to have my turn on the computer on the weekends. I remember being in 8th Grade when I got my first smartphone and I think that since then, I have just become more chronically online and minorly (not so minorly) addicted to my phone.
Personally, I have technology in a LOT of aspects of my life. Workwise, I currently teach using modular courses, so most of my day is spent on Google Classroom, Edsby, or planning for my courses as I get things together for each curriculum. Honestly, most of the time, I am sitting with both my laptop and desktop computer logged in, working away while I listen to Spotify over the speakers, or troubleshooting problems with the Chromebook cart in my room. Plus, let’s not lie, my cellphone is there too sending text messages to coworkers about students, tracking my husband’s blood sugar levels on his Dexcom app, or even honestly scrolling when I need a break. I am constantly bombarded with technology at school.
Septembers Google Calendar is no joke!
Now I would like to say that I spend more time at work on technology than I do outside of work, but then I would be lying. Growing up, I had a Dad that was very technologically advanced and wanted to help organize our life. So I was given a Gmail account at the ripe age of 12 and was told that if I had a practice, event, or something going on, it needed to be in the Google Calendar or it wouldn’t be happening. Now as a teenager, this was annoying. But, as an adult, I am so thankful that he set this up for me and helped me get comfortable with using an online calendar so early in life because my Google Calendar runs my life. When my husband and I started seriously dating and before we moved in together, he had to get on the Google Calendar bandwagon. I swear, it is probably one of my most used apps on my phone and I think it truly is one of my top 5 apps of all time. My Google account has assignments from high school, pictures going back as far as 2016 saved to the cloud, my Gmail account, and so much more. I have joked before that my Google account runs my life, but honestly, it kind of does with how much I use it in my daily life. Even my thermostat is Google!
Now you might think- Briana, if your Google account runs your life, then you definitely have an Android, right? … I did. But, I made the switch back to an iPhone. And I know, I know, there is so many cool things that Andriods can do over iPhones and the Andriod phones have better peripherals- I know. Honestly, I only made the switch back to Apple products in 2021 and the reason at the time was mostly because I was having so many issues with Andriod phones breaking on me. Now, I have stuck with Apple phones because I now have the iPhone, IPad, and apple watch. But just to be clear, you could NEVER pay me enough to switch to an Apple computer (PC for life!). The Apple Watch is great for being able to read messages from coworkers quickly while teaching or to give a quick answer back to someone while I teach. I use Siri often to ask questions or set timers while I work. Plus, my husband is a Type 1 Diabetic and uses a Dexcom glucose monitor and we both are able to get his blood sugar readings to our phones and straight to the Apple Watch. This is so helpful for my peace of mind while I am teaching so I know that if Drew has dangerously low blood sugar, then I will be notified and I can check on him, or call whatever school he is currently teaching at. I am not sure if I will stick with iPhone forever, but it works for now. Plus, honestly, I just downloaded all my Google apps onto the Apple phone haha.
Speaking of apps, I figured a fun way to talk about what apps I use most on my phone could be by doing a top 10 most used apps for the last week (Please don’t shame me!)
10) NFL Fantasy (Okay so I am hosting my first fantasy football league, honestly, I don’t know what I am doing here)
As you can see, I am not doing very well in my Fantasy Football League…
9) Google Calendar (See I use it a LOT)
8) Instagram (I blame my best friend for having this high on my list because she refuses to get TikTok because she says she is “too old” and so she sends me week-old TikTok videos as Reels on Instagram)
7) Libby (I love free books from the library- I think this might be lower than I expected because it only is counting screentime and not when I am listening to audiobooks)
6) Facebook (I might technically be Gen Z, but I am 80 years old at heart and I want to keep up with my family)
5) Messages (I pretty much only text my husband, best friend, or people for work, but this makes sense because of work)
4) Chrome (honestly I am surprised that this is as high on the list as it is…)
3) YouTube (I watch more YouTube than TV or movies, and I also am one of those people who watches videos to fall asleep so this makes sense)
2) Snapchat (I will brag to my middle years students about my snap streak, but honestly I think this is higher than it normally would be. I had a heavy Snapchat week- Shrug)
Honestly, in no shock to me
1) TikTok (I was one of those people who was very anti-TikTok before the pandemic, but then became 100% addicted. I tried to delete TikTok this summer, which lasted 24 hours, and then had to download it back again)
Some of my favorite apps that aren’t in the top 10 most used this week but are still great:
- Streaks: A digital Habit Tracker app that I use for my ADHD
- Spotify: Gotta love it for music, podcasts, and even audiobooks- Gotta listen to TSwift!
- Goodreads and StoryGraph: I read a LOT and I track how many books I am reading for my yearly reading challenge. (Feel free to add me as a friend if you want!)
I had originally set my goal to read as 52 books but I hit that too quick so I switched to 100
- Pokemon Go: I don’t play as much anymore but I do love it! – Fun Fact: Katia and I are Pokemon Go friends and have been for YEARS!
My Pokemon Go Account
- NYT Games App: I am very much a nerd and I pay for the NYT subscription to be able to do the crossword and get news and such.
I play Wordle daily and send screenshots back and forth with my Granny!
- Amazon Alexa, Nest, Aqara Home: We have our house set up with a lot of smart elements, so this is a need for us to be able to run our house!
Now when we talk about being online a lot, I typically find that there is two groups of people when it comes to notifications
Group 1- Has zero unread notifications and keeps on top of things immediately
Group 2- Has a TON of unread notifications and will leave them forever
Although I have ADHD, the autism wins out on this one and I CANNOT have a bunch of unread notifications. It is one of my biggest pet peeves to have unread notifications on apps and I will try to clear them immediately. Now this does mean that I tend to be that person who answers texts, emails or messages immediately which does not leave me in a great place for balancing my phone usage, but it is something that I am working on. One thing that I have been able to do recently was for some apps, I have just turned off notifications, and that way I am only checking when I feel inclined to because I am interested. It works about 40% of the time and the other 60% of the time, I am checking more often to see if there are notifications. Work in Progress…
We have talked about work and we talked about mobile usage, but haven’t yet ventured into other technology that I use at home.
So I already mentioned that we have a smart house (or at least we are trying). So we run an Alexa system and have echo’s placed throughout the house, including a large echo show in my kitchen that I can even watch TV on while I cook or do the dishes (Hey- I never said I wasn’t a little addicted to being online). Alexa runs smart lights, sensors, door locks, and cameras, feeds our cat, and more. Honestly, she runs a lot because ADHD means I will forget so at least someone (Alexa) will remember (no cats will starve on Alexa’s watch). We have used Alexa for a few years now and really enjoy it and we are working to make our house even more smart!
The PC I built.
Drew and I are also big gamers. We started with just having a PS4 and then got a Switch. Then Drew got a desktop gaming computer from a friend, and I loved it so I decided to learn to build my own- and I did! I built my gaming desktop in 2021 and honestly, it runs great! I use it for everything from gaming to streaming, online shopping, browsing, working on Cricut projects and more! I even use it for my university classes (but never for school work because I have a boundary not to take work home). Although I have found lately, it has been used more for university than gaming because I am so busy but I guess that is part of life. Speaking of university, when I decided to go back, I knew that I would need a laptop to take to the university for the classes that I had in person, so I bought a cheap little laptop to do the trick. It can barely run Zoom and UR courses at the same time, but it does its job when I have classes in person- Plus I get to keep my boundary of not taking my work laptop home with me! Additionally, I think there are odd computer parts, technology, and old laptops lying around somewhere, but I try not to think of them because if I don’t think about them long enough, my ADHD will forget they exist and then I don’t have to deal with them- ADHD life hack! (Please do not take that as actual advice)
Honestly, I will say, I love technology and all that it can do for me. Sometimes I worry it is getting to be a little bit too involved in my day-to-day life, but I am trying to just not worry about that right now (Avoidance is a perfectly healthy coping strategy, right? … right?) Well… time to go scroll on my phone for a while more I guess- I mean, time to go be productive and definitely not procrastinate!