Survey Question Anyone?... anyone?

It's hard to track people down to ask a simple question. 


In the past few weeks throughout my inquiry classes I have been really thinking about the toll of technology use on our minds and how we function. I ended up asking two questions to a random sort of people, or whoever I could get my grasp on. 

1. On average how many times do you think you use your phone throughout the day?
2. Do you feel weird when you don't your phone on you? 

I got many varied answers. The reason I asked these questions in the first place was to see how attached people where to their 'instant gratification devices', which is something I came up with while thinking about how people react to their phones. If someone wants an answer, they will get one within minutes using their phone. Or maybe someone is bored, they can instantly fix that with all the apps that are available to download onto their phone. Endless possibilities to conquer the need for instant gratification. 

The results to my questions further helped me see how 'glued' to our devices we really are. To the first question, everyone I asked said that they use their phones at least, or very well over 100 times or more throughout the day, they also added that "that count may just be texting alone though..". Instant messaging on the go to accommodate you where ever and whenever. 

The answers to the second question I asked people were actually shocking. Everyone put some thought into how they would feel without their phone. One person said "if i am struck with awareness that the weight of my phone is missing from my leg, there is a moment of primal panic. On more than one occasion I have checked facebook on my phone while on facebook on my computer. Sometimes I feel vibrations that are not there, and when I rip my phone out of my pocket to the black and print-smudged screen, i am crushed."

In the end all I saw was repeated uneasiness when I asked someone what they would feel without their phone. Honestly, I wouldn't like the feeling of my phone being somewhere else either. 

Part instant gratification and almost seems addictive as well. Could our phones soon be able to send out addictive waves where we can't control ourselves, or maybe we are already there with technology. 

An article that shows actual results from tests and explain how teens in general felt the same way as people I surveyed. 

Where is my time going?

Almost like grains of sand flowing, keeping track of time, my sand is disappearing right out sight. Desperately I try to get my 8 hours of sleep otherwise I feel as if I am barely functioning throughout the day. When my weekends come into sight I end up sleeping up to 11 hours, how I end up doing this mind-boggles me. The rest of my weekend hours go to studying and doing whatever work I can for the week coming up. Mostly art, reading art history, and studying German. Throughout the week I try to cram so many things in before I go off to work from 4.30-10 Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Rest of my hours in the week I am in school or driving to school, sometimes eating. 


I wish I could stop my sand from slipping away and take a moment or two to think. 
I miss contemplating what I'm doing or saying, or going to say or do. Now I seem to say either yes, no, later, can't, bye bye bye. Everything blurs here and there as information jams up in my head giving me a constant annoying headache. 


I know I am not the only one frustrated with it, I know complaining won't help it. That's why in the end I pick studying all day on the weekends instead of going out. If I have time at night, I treat myself and have fun. 


In the end sadly, this won't be a stress-less easy first semester in my book, it'll be more of a headache with time and me running against the sand that's slipping away. 


Wanna take a break? Find a show you like and take a load off your shoulders with the help of my favorite thing, hulu. :)

Number Seven, A trip to get fit

I took a walk to the fitness center between classes and decided to look around. Two students at the front dress asked if I wanted to sign up, I already have a membership at another gym right by my house, but I decided to take ask some questions.



The hours of the fitness center are as followed:
Monday- Thursday: 7 am - 10 pm
Friday 7 am - 8 pm
Saturday 9.30 am - 4.30 pm
Sunday 2 pm - 7 pm


The fitness center is equipped with many machines ranging from treadmills to lat pull-downs and chest presses, shoulder presses, and leg presses, you name it, they have it.
It costs a little more than my own gym, but if I lived on campus it would be more convenient for me to go there. It is 60$ per semester or 35$, a reduced price,  if you start during the middle of the semester.


While I was asking about prices I thought about how much the classes were. When you pay for the semester all the classes come free as well. So I decided to look at what kind of classes they offered. First and only one I wanted to attend was the yoga class. Yoga is so calming and can make you feel great all throughout the day.
Of course they only have yoga classes when I have class or work. But yoga can benefit anyone and everyone.

If you're thinking is silly but you're stressed all the time take a look at this. Maybe yoga can become a thing of your life like I wish it could be more of mine.

What is Really Important?

My task : Look at fellow classmates blogs and judge which ones could be ranked as "A" material.

I don't know how it is for everyone, but I am absolutely horrible, terrible, god awful at picking and deciding. I read almost every single person's blogs, a random post from each one, and that didn't help. How am I suppose to rank them. Each person has there own set mind on what they want from their blog, how they want readers to feel or think. In the end I picked those that made me laugh, talked about things they liked that personally I never got into, and one that was just what we were suppose to do.

Louie's happy blog time, is just that. He makes corny jokes through all of his posts and makes me giggle as I read them. He finishes the assignments we are suppose to do, but he adds his own personality into them and makes me feel as if he is talking to the reader, which could be anyone.
Rachel's blog sends off a feeling of gentleness and ease. Its background is bright pink and her personality just like Louie's shouts out at you. In the beginning I know Rachel had some trouble with starting up her own blog but you can easily see that she is getting more comfortable with it and writing about herself.
Finally there is Kelsey's blog. In her posts she is clearly just doing the assignments she was given and put little of her own personality in it. She is very organized and her post flow very nicely. Only thing is I wish she would put more Kelsey into her writings.

To sum it all up, I like to see variety in everyone's writing, which is why I choose such different blogs. In my opinion everyone is ranked differently. Sometimes though, words describe better than a letter or number.

A little spice of Art

Shifting and searching through blogs is not a common thing for me. First thing whenever Google something is artwork, instead this time I looked at art teachers and what they had to say. 

• Art for Small Hands
• Adventures of an Art Teacher

These two blogs above caught my eye. They both are art teachers but go about writing and explaining art in different ways. One teacher explains how to bring art up into a child and let them grow, the other shows art projects of her students along with instructional blog posts. 


Of course these two blogs are influential on me and I even bookmarked them so I can go back and get some inspiration from them. The two teachers made me want to teach art even more. In both blogs the women seemed to love art and children just as much as I do. 


Others though who might not be interested in art education or art in general might still be fascinated with these two blogs. A babysitter could easily get some quick ideas to make crafts with whoever they are watching. Or maybe a person is insecure about their artwork. In all honesty, anything a person makes whether another person thinks it is good or not, it is artwork. 


Art isn't just for 'artists', it is for everyone. It can be a stress reliever, or something that helps you think. A boredom reducer. Art can be whatever you make it to be. 


Here is an easy low relief project made out of simple cardboard that anyone can do: 

It was one of the projects made by Katie Morris. 
Try it out and you may have more fun than you thought you would.

A little Trip From Here to There. #3

Every day, every signal day, I walk by the Health center and all these buildings around it. I really didn't know what was in them, I figured they were offices.

I am a commuter, an oblivious student to Southern. I know where my classes are and where the student center is, everything else on campus just looms over me like an abandoned building.  I'm rushed on time when I'm on campus so I never had the chance to look around. Either I have back to back classes, which all of mine are, or I am running home to get some studying in before work.

Honestly, I didn't want to go places I didn't have to. But when I got to the health center I asked to talk to a nurse and told them how I wanted to ask a few questions on help issues here at Southern. I waited for a little bit and talked to one of the wellness managers, or assistants, I'm not sure which it was. Everyone welcomed me in and told me as much as they could.

I talked to a nurse one-on-one and she told me some common health issues. To my surprise nothing seemed surprising, flues, colds, strep, mono, and a few STD's were all things I figured were going to be common. Then the nurse mentioned stress related illnesses. She told me that so many students get run down and get colds and flues very easily because they are so over stressed.

Simple enough though, the nurse went on to explain that all of these common health issues are too easy to avoid. All you need to do is exercise good hand washing, get a flu shot every year, sleep right, and make healthy food choices and safe sex.

I'm not really worried about getting sick any more this year. I told the nurse I get sick very easily and she told me that if I don't stress myself out and get enough sleep I should be perfectly fine, just make sure I avoid anyone coughing.





If you think you're stressing yourself out just go here  Understanding Stress, and see if you need a quiet day of relaxation.

And for everyone who is living in a dorm, the health center had this nice poster with some cool information:

Technology Twister

Just about everyone who can access technology most likely uses it. Who wouldn't. 
As you read my blog on the internet you're, I'm guessing, either on a computer or a smart phone. 

Now my question is, are you reading this blog out of curiosity, maybe you're bored, or maybe just maybe you have a technology problem. I don't want to sound insulting or rude, but maybe you should step away from the internet and get some fresh air. If you want to understand some interesting ideas about the over use of technology in your life and how stressful it could be making you, then go ahead and be intertwined with the internet. 

First off, personally, I'm on the internet too much than I would prefer and I can only dream about escaping and going hiking or even go rafting in a river for days on end. I was very jealous of theses scientists that got to do just that.

Five scientists spent a week in May at a remote area of southern Utah, rafting in the San Juan River, camping on the  banks and hiking the tributary canyons. It wasn't a vacation or even a get-away. The main point of this lovely voyage was to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave. This trip was to show how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects, hopefully.

Through out the trip little changes occurred. A non-believer of this trip, Todd Braver, stopped wearing his watch saying he just forgot, which he never did. The scientists under went a type of relaxation and by the 3rd day completely pushed away any technology and was so content at watching the stars and hiking the day away. 

People end up forgetting about how nice it is to get away from technology and relax. For these five scientists in the end, they all agreed the trip was a success. 

From that short trip do you believe our brain needs to cool down from societies busy schedule? I sure do. 

Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime : In this link, the article tells about how people get upset when technology is taken away from them. People feel the need to multitask and distract themselves because they don't want to feel 'bored'. 

Do these people ever think about downtime their brain needs to be able to function better. Sleep is great to regenerate for your body, but your brain needs some downtime of just sitting back and being unplugged. 

For many people, technology isn't a problem, but for others it could be causing a lot of stress on you and maybe your relationships. 

For another read click here. Hopefully it's not too late for you and maybe you can escape into the wilderness and get some relaxation for you and your overworked brain.