Being Alive

In No Zombies: Stop Going Through the Motions and Live Life from  Cool Cat Teacher Blog by coolcatteacher@gmail.com, Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher, asks,

“I wonder how many people will reach the end of their lives and wonder if they really were alive?”

I think we need to teach our students about etiquette with electronic devices. I see too many young people missing out on so much of life because they are fixated on their electronic devices. Too much of life is missed because of this!

Let me disclose that I love my mobile devices and would stay on the too long if I didn’t monitor and control my own usage of them. This is also something that should be taught to our students. I have learned that I have other interests that require me from being on my electronic devices.

One of my pet peeves are people who have loud and long conversations on their phone in public places like restaurants, stores, and even restrooms! I have answered a phone if it was an important call that I couldn’t miss and ask the person to hold on until I could go to a more private place. Otherwise, let it go to voicemail and check it later!

If you are with other people in an eating establishment, it should be a device free area unless you are sharing photos with others.

Today at McDonalds, someone was watching a video with the sound on so everyone had to hear it. No one wants to hear you laughing at a video they don’t want or care to see or hear! Either use headphones/earbuds or turn off the sound!

If you are outdoors where other people are trying to enjoy nature, do not talk on your phone, listen to music, or otherwise disrupt their quiet enjoyment of their surroundings.

It is great to take a lot of photos (I am guilty of this!) but also move the camera away from your face and look around. Appreciate where you are away from a camera! Memories are good to capture but they mean more if you remember the actual experience.

When given a choice of online interactions or real-life interactions, always, always opt for the real life ones. We should never get to where we prefer artificial or online interactions over real life ones. The real-life interactions are more meaningful in life that others. Nothing can take the place of meeting people face to face, feeling emotions, and using our senses that we don’t always use online.

What do you do to make sure that you experience life first hand? Please share!

Photo: Live by Anton Sim