Social Media Detox

I wouldn’t consider myself the heaviest social media user out there, but I definitely log at least an hour a day on socials apps and sites. Lately, while scrolling through Twitter I started to wonder, why am I on here? I don’t find any of the content particularly stimulating, and I feel like I spend so much time curating my feed since whatever system controls what I see doesn’t seem to understand who I am. The same goes for Facebook. I feel like I spend more time removing folks from my news feed, marking ads as irrelevant, and being stirred up emotionally by content that’s there just to bring about a reaction and start a conversation that I may not want to be a part of than actually seeing the content I want. I miss seeing what my friends were up to. I miss seeing photos of people who don’t live near me anymore. I miss being social, especially during a pandemic when in-person socialization is a hot commodity.

So why would I subject myself to these environments? Why spend time scrolling through feeds that just leave me feeling worse? I guess it’s primarily been to find that glimmer of hope. The needle in the haystack. Those posts are becoming less frequent though. There is also the fear of missing out. (FOMO) What if someone posts something important and I don’t see it because I deleted my account or ignored social media!? Then it dawned on me. If something were so critical that someone wanted me to know, they would likely not use social media to contact me. At least I hope so!

For reasons I mentioned above, I’m deactivating a few of my social accounts. Twitter, and Snapchat have been deactivated. Facebook I only plan to use for groups, events, and birthdays I always seem to forget 😉 . Instagram will remain my go to for daily perusing and LinkedIn will strictly be used for their LinkedIn Learning courses that I use for work. I think I’m ready for this mental break. Maybe I’ll actually write more often on the blog with the time I’ll save. Maybe I’ll just go back to my old ways. Honestly, I can’t be sure just yet what is going to come of this!

<JNog>

My Happy Place

Yesterday, I went to Gooseberry Neck in Westport, MA. It’s been one of the places I’m happiest (aside from Sweden)for a very long time. It’s just so freakin peaceful! I’m not usually a fan of the beach but Gooseberry’s combination of rocky and sandy areas give it a bit more diversity than the typical beach.

I love Gooseberry because it’s virtually distraction free. No stores or board walks or crowds. It does draw a fair share of folks, but it’s quite large and there’s plenty of room for everyone to not be really close to each other. I love to just find a big rock to sit on, close my eyes, and listen to the waves. It really helps to clear my mind. I do have to make sure I put on copious amounts of sunscreen though or my skin will fry 😉

Here are some additional photos from my afternoon there! Enjoy! 🙂

A little nugget of an update.

I wanted to take a moment to update anyone who might actually be visiting the site to let you know that 1) I am alive. 2) I don’t know about other artists and creative’s in my life, but this pandemic has caused quite the dry spell in my creativity and 3) I am working on new songs despite this! One of my goals for 2020 was to complete enough songs to release an EP for the new year 2021. I think I may still one on track to reach this goal and I’ll be sharing little bits and pieces as I go along. One will be coming out later tonight so keep an eye out!

Stay safe and well,

<JNog>

Distractions and Tracking

Currently, there is a Fitbit Charge 3 on my wrist. For any of you who know me this should be shocking. I have been an Apple Watch user since it’s original release back in April of 2015. I love my Apple Watch, but recently, I’ve begun to feel that my dependence on screens, and the distractions from these screens has been affecting my focus. I’ve been making a conscious effort to use my phone less, deleting social media apps, delegating certain tasks to my iPad or Mac, and even sleeping with my phone in another room at night.

It’s helped. My screen time overall has gone down, but one screen has proven to be a continuous distraction. My Apple Watch. The thing about Apple’s wearable is that it infiltrates your life on a deeper level than your phone. It delivers you nuggets of information when your phone isn’t by your side, it tracks your activity, it gives you access to Siri all from your wrist. I tried turning off notifications for many of my apps on the watch. I tried changing watch faces so that I wasn’t presented with so much information all the time. It didn’t work. I found myself interacting with it sometimes for no reason at all. Honestly, the main reason I wanted the watch initially was to track my activity and be healthier.

Enter the Fitbit Charge 3. My Apple Watch, a Series 4 Stainless Steel Gold 44mm version, is stunning, but heavy and distracting. Instead of focusing on activity I was getting distracted by notifications and checking the weather constantly even though I’m almost always near a window. I would read text messages on it and reply, preview news articles to save for later on my phone and take endless ECG’s because I could. The activity portion had become secondary, almost non-existent. The activity complication (widget) ceased to exist on many of my watch faces replaced with a button for my Starbucks card or quick access to my calendar and reminders. What had become a device to supplement my phone was in some cases replacing it, which is in fact not necessarily a bad thing, but also, I could’ve just used my phone.

The Charge 3 is a very different device than the Apple Watch. Activity is it’s primary focus. There is no multi color OLED panel. There is no stainless steel chassis. There is no Siri. You can’t take phone calls or dictate text messages on it. It can deliver notifications from your phone but most of them are not actionable so it moves the interaction factor back to your phone. It tracks activity and sleep. Most importantly I don’t even notice it on my wrist, until it tells me it’s time to get my 250 steps in since I’ve been sitting for 50 minutes straight. It checks my heart rate constantly but can last 6 days on a single charge. I think it’s the device I need in my life right now. A device that isn’t trying to be everything. It’s just trying to be an activity tracker.

I’m only on day 2 with it, and I’m experiencing Apple Watch withdrawals for sure, but these feelings of missing my Apple Watch indicate to me that maybe I was a bit too attached to it and for the wrong reasons. My phone usage hasn’t increased in these 2 days which is interesting since I haven’t been interacting with my Apple Watch at all. I’ll be wearing the Charge 3 for the rest of the week and will evaluate if it’s staying or going, but so far, I think it’s been a healthy addition to my life. Updates to come!

-JNog

Ready. Set. Launch.

I’m Jonathan Nogueira, and this, is 2020. Welcome to my site! Glad you could make it. Let me give you the lay of the land. This portion of my site is the blog where you will find content from various topics that I am interested in. Some posts will speak about what’s going on in my life. Sometimes I will focus on technology, leaning pretty heavily into the Apple product line. I will also be sharing opinions, reviews, and pretty much any other item that pops into my head and I want to add to the pile. I hope there might be a little something for everyone and I will do my best to make those different categories easy to find!

This site as I state in the welcome message on my homepage is about me being able to express myself in pretty much any way I want creatively. Writing, music, photography. It’s my collection of everything that I believe reflects me as a person. It’s not about curated pictures of dinner or showing off the “perfect” life. It’s about helping you understand who I am and helping myself learn more about me along the way.

So here we are, a new year, a new site (that I’ve been sitting on publishing for months now), and a new way to connect with me. Enjoy.

Happy New Year,

<JNog>