I will admit I am a bit ashamed of how integrated my technology use is in my daily morning routine. When I wake up, the first thing I do is check my phone. It is unlikely that anyone has contacted me between 2am-10am, but it is important that I know for sure before even leaving my bed. The second thing I grab is my iPod. I do not have a data plan on my phone so I use my iPod with my wireless Internet for apps such as Instagram and Snapchat. I check to see if I have any notifications, and scroll my feed to see what everyone has been posting since I was last present on the app. Next, I finally get out of bed to go sit at my desk where my laptop sleeps. Although I will admit sometimes I perform a leaning tower act to reach it and bring it into bed with me. The floor is lava, I must not leave the bed. When I open my Macbook Pro, I check my emails in iCloud, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. The thing that is so ridiculous about all of this is that I check all of these social media accounts before I go to bed as well.
Why do I feel the need to be so connected as soon as I wake up? It is almost as if I cannot rest until I know I do not have a single notification left unchecked and do not feel comfortable starting my day until I know that this is also true in the morning. Either way, I usually get up an hour earlier that I need to so that I can leisurely explore all my social media accounts as a necessary part of my morning routine. Socially, I seem to connect more with people online than offline, and am starting to find more enjoyment talking through text than in person.
The main three devices I use are my laptop, phone and iPod. The iPod is not pictured here because the iPod is taking the picture. For some reason using my digital camera is not as cool as it used to be, or it is just not as fast as taking a picture and uploading it with my iPod.
I bought my iPod Touch from a used electronic store. I already had an iPod Nano, but apps were just starting to become popular and so an iPod touch was the easiest way for me to participate in that. The next item I got was my phone. I did not get a phone until I was 16, because I was not allowed to get one until I could pay for the bill myself. It was enough motivation for me to go job hunting as soon as I turned 16, and I spent my first paycheck on my first phone. I bought my first laptop when I started high school. It lasted me all four years before reaching its inevitable predetermined death. I was not too upset though, because I knew that soon I would be upgrading from a PC to a Mac. I was moving up in the world. My Macbook Pro was a high school graduation gift, except I actually paid for half of it. Still, it is probably my most valuable possession, and the thing I would save if there were a fire in my house. I have had two iPods, two phones, and two laptops over the last six years. Other than getting the iPod touch for apps, all of my other device upgrades have been because the previous item had stopped functioning the way it should.
I have a bin of technology at my Mom’s house that is full of old electronics I do not use anymore. From airplane earphones and a Walkman to old chargers and a Gameboy Advance. I even have a little collection of old electronics at my house right now:
You can see my old iPod Nano, just hanging around in case I lose my iPod touch or it stops working. There is also a bunch of old cords that have no use now, but you will see there are keys in there too. Those are keys to my Grandma’s old house that she moved out of two years ago. I think I hold onto all of these items because at one point in time they were very valuable to me, and it simply just does not feel right to throw them away. I have not thrown out a single electronic. Not even my hefty old laptop. The thing is, if I wanted to get rid of them, I would not even know how.
Snapshots of Thought 