johnkalivas-blog

[johnkalivas-blog]

Magical Life

The final podcast reflected on the challenges that I completed over the past week. This podcast inspired me to carry the lessons that I learned this week with me as I go forward in life. In order to stay on task I need to learn how to make conscious decisions about the information I am consuming every day and whether or not the information is really important to me. Being present in the moment is extremely important because more often than not the internet tries to dictate what information we as users will consume every day, increasing our awareness about the choices we are making can help us decide between what the internet wants us to consume and what we really want to consume out of our own interest. We need to spend more time with information that we genuinely want to engage in, and less time with information that is unimportant to us.

So, from this point on my personal philosophy about media and information will be based on what I have learned this week through the Infomagical challenges. I want to think more about the choices I make when I am on social media so that I am engaging with information that matters to me, not someone else. When I am on these media platforms I want to invest my time in information that serves a purpose and will enhance my life.

There is so much information being thrown at each and every one of us every day that sometimes it can become overwhelming. Infomagical has taught me that if I can just stop and take a minute to think about the information that I am consuming, then maybe each day will become a little less stressful.

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Magical Connection

Magical Connection is all putting ourselves in a position to have a conversation with another person that lasts seven minutes or longer. It takes an average of seven minutes for the people conversing to figure out if the conversation will grow beyond that time or collapse. During those seven minutes there are often dull, boring or awkward moments that cause people to shy away from these real time conversations. Many people today would rather text or e-mail rather than have a conversation in real time. Most of these people would prefer to compose a perfect message via text or e-mail in order to avoid being put in a vulnerable position by having a conversation in real time.

This challenge came pretty easy for me as I speak with my parents over the phone multiple times a week for much longer than seven minutes at a time. I called my mom to talk her about this assignment and explained to her each challenge and what the purpose of it was. We spoke for the better part of half an hour and just like that the challenge was complete.

When I got off the phone I reflected on the conversation and the challenge and wondered if the reason I spoke with my parents so frequently over the phone is because they are not the greatest communicators through text messages. I think it is definitely part of the reason I talk to them over the phone but the main reason I prefer speaking to them by phone is because it makes the conversation feel more realistic. The element of conversation that forces you to think on the spot and compose your thoughts in real time is something that I much prefer over text messages.

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Magical Brain

Today the podcast challenged me to go through the day without engaging in trending topics. Instead, I was encouraged to consume only the information that was of personal interest. The podcast mentioned that in order to avoid consuming too much trending media, you have to be self aware while using media. Taking a moment to be mindful of what you are about to do, before you do it, is just as important when consuming media as it is in any other aspect of your life.

This challenge was a pretty big test for me. Usually I fall victim to the viral or trending information of the day. I often find myself scrolling through meaningless information wasting time with absolutely no explanation. Today, my challenge was to avoid that type of information. The easiest way that I found to complete this challenge was obviously just to avoid my social media platforms that I usually find these trending topics on. Although that worked for about half of the day, I did catch myself a couple of times about to enter into the dark world of trending topics. When I did catch myself about to engage with this information I took a minute to stop and think about whether or not I really needed to read it, and every single time the answer was no.

All in all, the challenge went pretty well. I managed to go the entire day without cracking and looking into any viral or trending topics, although I was close to failing a couple of times. There is so much meaningless information on media platforms every day that sometimes it seems like it is hard not to engage with it. That is why I welcomed today’s challenge with open arms in order to have a day of something different.

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Magical Phone

The podcast today challenged me to reorganize my phone and remove the apps that I no longer use, or remove the ones that no longer bring me joy. The podcast encouraged me to look at my phone as if it were my closet, which was helpful because it gave me a different perspective and made each app feel more significant. For me, the most important part of the podcast was the encouragement to take a moment of mindfulness when cleaning up my phone in order to complete the challenge correctly.

So here is what I did. I took the day to figure out what apps I was actually using because I wanted to use it, rather than using the app because it had a notification beside it that I felt like I should check. The podcast included a technique that involved turning off notifications, so that is exactly what I did. Once all of my notifications were turned off I decided that throughout the day the most important thing for me to do was to be mindful of what I was doing every time I turned on my phone. This was helpful because each time I looked at my phone during the day I took the time to recognize whether or not I was about to open an app for joy or out of habit. It quickly became apparent that I was only opening a majority of my apps because I had developed a habit of opening them, rather than opening them because I actually wanted to use them for something I was interested in.

“Magical Phone” was a lot easier and very helpful as compared to my “Magical Day”. I ended up deleting seven apps in total, four because I no longer used them and three because the challenge helped me realize that I was not using them for anything that peeked my interest.

This challenge was beneficial and it gave me the opportunity to recognize what sparked joy in my mobile life. I would encourage anyone with a cluttered phone to take the time to complete this challenge and spend the day cleaning his or her mobile closet.

[johnkalivas-blog]

Magical Day

Today’s challenge was to go without multitasking and to give my full attention to one thing at a time for the duration of the day. What I found most interesting about today’s podcast was the fact that internal interruptions, which means you distract yourself from the task you are trying to complete, happen just as frequently as when others distract you from a task which is known as an external interruption.

The challenge was very difficult to complete. I will admit that I tried this challenge on a Sunday because I thought it would make it easier to complete, but it did not. The hardest part of this challenge for me was fighting the urge to pull out my phone and check for notifications. Other than that, the challenge was going great until the late afternoon hours when I pulled out my phone while I was watching a football game and immediately I realized that I had just failed the challenge. After that I did not break again for the rest of the day because I was determined to finish the challenge without failing again.

“Magical Day” did not feel very magical to me, but I did feel less stressed out when I was able to focus on one task at a time without giving into the distractions around me. I multitask so frequently in my life that it has basically become normal for me. Being interrupted so often by internal and external factors makes single tasking difficult for me, but I think I could definitely improve on it if I committed to blocking out the distractions on a daily basis. If focusing on one task at a time means less stress then I am definitely willing to give it a complete effort.

I failed the challenge but I gave it a pretty strong effort so I’ll give myself a round of applause for that. Tomorrow I will create my “Magical Phone”!