Is Social Media Taking Over Your Life

Have you realized how much time you spend on social media sites and other things that keep you distract from really getting the things that really need to be done taken care of?  

There is an app on the Mac OS that can help you regain yourself control. The App is actual called Self Control.  The way this app works is it blocks distracting websites for a set time so if you find that you’re a Twitter addict or maybe spend way too much time on Facebook  and not getting what you need done to be successful in life you can set this application for up to four hours.  Your browser will act as if it is offline for that period when you try to go to that site.  The beautiful thing is no matter how many times you attempt to restart your computer or reboot your computer that time will not restart.  The great thing about this app is you have what is called a whitelist and a blacklist so that way you do not have to completely disable the internet you simply disabled what you need to stay away from to be focus.  This particular app is only for Mac users however, PC users can check out the Freedom app it is similar.

If you’re not to the point that you don’t need to disabled sites but maybe you want to take notice of how much time your spending where online then check out the app called Track Time it will audit how much time you spend on your computer as well as the different programs you use.  So if Firefox is where you do a lot of your other stuff (for instance I work in Google Chrome but I socialize in Firefox) this program would tell me how much time I spend where.  Track Time can be ran in the background, it will show you a timeline of your online life, and it is an effective wake up call to make you take notice of your online time.  Too bad this is only for Mac users and there is not a PC app out right now that is comparable.

Don't let social media take over your life unless that's what your paid for!

Truly Blessed,

Misherald "Missy", Jonathan "JB" & Sherbert "SD" Brown

Do You Surround Yourself With Positive People

The Frats of Phi Beta Sigma Inc of CSU
chilling with J & Missy at the
 Summerville Miracle League Game

It's December 31 and honestly it's been a really quiet morning so I decided to visit a few influential blogs that I enjoy reading when I have free time on my hands. 

Today I was drawn to Paul C. Brunson's blog in case you aren't aware of who he is he's the Real Life Hitch (yeah Hitch as in the movie that Will Smith played the matchmaker) will that's what Paul does for a living. He has a blog that he keeps on his website and I love getting the opportunity to read his words. 

A few days ago he wrote a blog entitled Surround Yourself With Better People and it was quite a interesting read. He speaks about how you should keep yourself surrounded with people who are as my passionate and accomplished as you or where your wanting to be.  This got me to thinking I don't have many people who I hang with or surround myself in real life that I wouldn't consider successful in their own right. However after taking a evaluation of my friends in my personal life it got me to thinking about my friends in my social media life. Now that's a different ballgame because I've come to find that over time my friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have grown and often times I find myself looking at my friends list wondering who is who and where I know them from to the point one day I decided to purge my Facebook friends.

I was at 4600 people and do mind you Facebook only allows 5000 friends per a page and I wasn't getting a second page so with that purge I made simple guidelines if I hadn't spoken with the individuals within a 30 day period days or if their Facebook profile photo was inappropriate and didn't fit into what I would considered a good impression they had to go. My first purge was impressive I went from over 4000 friends to down to about 1000 friends. It felt good to clear up room in my profile and to get rid of unwanted and unnecessary status out of my news feed. 

As time went on I started realizing that I didn't want to be apart of any drama or negatively because at this time I was in the process of looking into myself and that meant I needed to watch who I was hanging around and who I had in my inner ear so this time when I went into my friends list I had a more concise process of what I wanted this time around it was your profile and you as a person had to have some sort of influence to me and by this time I told myself I wanted less than 500 friends and I went to town this time the purge took me a few days because I went on everyone's page and I really looked at what these individuals were about and I was mindful of their image as well as mine. I got my Facebook friends down to 450 every once in a while I start to look at profiles again to purge as I see fit as of today I have 400 friends easily and I'm quick to unfriend when things start being what I know I need to hear or see and it provides no positive outlook or influence on life or at least my idea of life.

I say all of this to say this when reading Paul's Blog he asked a good question he asks you to think of five or ten people you spend the most time with. He asks if your proud of what they have achieved or impressed by what they are doing? Are they passionate about the values you have and do they inspire you? If you think about these questions and you answer no to any then you really need to think about who your friends are. 

Now to those wondering what does any of this have to do with her and her son it has a lot to do with us. While many may find it weird that I look at my friends who have kids and I try to involved my child while he's special he has to learn to live in the normal world as everyone else sees it and he feeds off of the energy surrounding him and as his mother I make sure it's always positive energy. 

To check out the blog that inspire me to write about your friends check out Mr Paul Brunson at his blog. 

~Truly Blessed,

Misherald "Missy" & Jonathan "JB" Brown