This is going to be my “old person yells at the clouds” post.
Lately I just feel exhausted. Maybe it’s because I’m working two jobs or maybe it’s because working two jobs has screwed up my sleep schedule.
Or maybe it’s because of the constant notifications I’m always getting. Between my phone, social media, and TV, I just feel bombarded with messages.
Media is how we get our news, and I get that. I get that advertising is a thing—you’re talking to a person that knows how to make Facebook retargeting ads at work. The multiple push notifications on my phone might be a little much, but I have them because I don’t have time to constantly watch TV or go online or social media to get news.
Consuming those multiple snippets in notifications or 280 characters or less in tweets is nonstop, and the 24/7 news cycle now seems like just an infinite news cycle. Between politics, sports, regular news, world news, bad news, human interest stories, viral videos, it’s just too much sometimes.
But I’ve grown up in an era where if you don’t consume any kind of media, you’re left in the dark. And everything just moves so darn fast. If you miss one thing, then everything after it just doesn’t make any sense.
I don’t have time to actively check social media at work—because I’m at work—but when I come home and have time, I sometimes feel myself just scrolling through tweets or posts just to get to the top and not really reading anything. Because it’s just a lot of information to consume that you missed over seven-plus hours.
But the communication fanatic in me likes to analyze the news and words and how things are framed and since everything feels like a train wreck, you just can’t look away. We need to find a happy medium of consuming news and media in a healthy way and just unplugging and going outside.
Strikeouts + Sprinkles 
Unplugging is the key. I don’t get to read or just enjoy nature like I would like to anymore. I have 2 jobs as well not to mention the National Guard thing I do so I stay busy. At my second job, I put my phone away because their isn’t a signal in the building and I have to say, I love the disconnect from it. I’m not checking it every few minutes and I just spend my time helping and working. Now, I have to learn to do this at home somehow..hmm 😅
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It’s so hard to not check your phone when you’re at home. Sometimes if I’m sitting in my bed with my laptop or reading, I’ll leave my phone face down on my desk so I don’t see any notifications. It does feel nice to not have to check it all the time. I’m definitely trying to be better about it.
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I still check social media a decent amount, but I’ve found that turning off notifications helps a lot! I have notifications for several apps turned off on my phone, and have actually been thinking about turning off some more. It means somewhat less time on my phone and a lot less anxiety when I do check it.
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