Stress from being too connected

People love their gadgets, and there are tons of gadgets to love, but have we developed this dependency with our technology? Most people can simply use their devices for what they are; a simple way to reach somebody but for others, their cell phones are their lives. With all of the specs that iPhone, android, and google offer such as; appointment calendars, stocks, newsstands, weather widgets, and many more, we are becoming solely dependent on our handheld devices. 

Back in the day if anyone needed to reach us they would leave a message on a machine and it wouldn't be checked until later on in the day. Back in the day text messages used to take several days to reach the other person(back then we called them letters). All of our appointments were noted with pens and now they're noted with stylus's. 

In America where we used to have several separate apparatus's to keep in touch and connected, they have all conformed into one device which is your cell phone. 

I would like to create a poll for our class which will help us interact more in the comment section below. 

1. Is your cell phone within reach? (Y/N)
2. Is your cell phone CHARGER with you? (Y/N)
3. How many texts do you think you send a day?  
4. How many texts do you think you send each month?
5. Can you text blindfolded? (Y/N)

It's obvious that the dependency of our cell phones has increased, but how much do you think it has gone up? The numbers will shock you and according to Griffintechnology, I will share some mind blowing statistics with you. 

DID YOU KNOW:

• 200,000,000,000,000 (two hundred trillion) text messages are received in America each day
• 3,339 text messages are sent by teens each month (which is a 556% increase in two years)
• 42% of teens claim they can text blindly
• 83% use their cell phones to take pictures
• 60% utilize their devices to listen to music
• 46% play games
• 27% surf the web
• 23% use their phones for social media purposes

The amount of voice calls has significantly decreased since text messaging has become unlimited and more useful to teens. Teens 18 and under have lost 631 minutes in average talk time because they are sending 3,339 text messages. Even adults that are 65 and older have a decrease in the utilization of talk time. Their numbers were 398 minutes lost with on average 32 text messages gained. 

Even if we tried to separate ourselves from our mobile devices, we would experience such strong withdrawal symptoms that would consume us before the end of the day. 

How Facebook can ruin your career

With 400 million registered users and more being added to that number every day, Facebook is the most popular social media site out there. You would think by now that in most cases the users would know when to censor themselves. No. Such is not the case. 

We live in this technological world filled with hashtags and filters that sometimes we forget that there is the "real world" to worry about also and what one may feel is appropriate to post on social media, ones boss may not feel the same way. 

Police officers, nurses, flight attendants, prison guards, etc. are some of the jobs to be mindful about what should be shared with their social medias. 

A police officer in Atlanta lost his job over confidential information shared over Facebook with regards to a case he was working on. He expressed several emotional feelings towards the case and although his profile was set to private, the FBI still hacked their way into his social media and gave him the boot. 

Another example I found on the web (found here) was that a prison guard in Nebraska shared on his Facebook in a status that he had beaten an inmates face into the ground and was actually boasting about the situation. The state, in turn, terminated the prison guard along with two followers he had accrued in that time. Although the two followers had nothing to do with the post or the actions that took place, they still commented on his Facebook status feeding into the post and offering their support. 

A flight attendant was termed from her job when she leaked on her Facebook that the air craft she was working on had undergone four engine changes in the last year and that the cabins were filled with cockroaches. Not only did she disclose private information about the airlines maintenance issues but she also began expressing her feelings about some of the passengers and making racial slurs about them. 

So how can we save ourselves from missing out on job opportunities or even simply securing our jobs whilst still enjoying our social media? According to an article read on Moneycrashers  there are a simple few things to keep in mind. 

1. Take A Deep Breathe Before You Post An Update
2. Don’t Take Compromising Photos/Videos
3. Make Your Twitter Account Private
4. Use Your Social Profiles To Further Your Career