PaperCat

Tag: something different

  • Stop the Doomscroll Weekly Recap

    Over the week, I did find two new apps to use but they are not time-wasters. The two apps are Wellos and Fable.

    Screen time recap last week

    Wellos is a health app that I have access to through my insurance. Fable is a book tracking app that also has book groups. I saw it through Instagram before I got rid of it and Fable is a great alternative to Goodreads since I’ve been trying to drop Amazon. (Goodreads is owned by Amazon.)

    Even with the addition of health and reading tracking, my screen time for the week went down by 58% from the week before.

    By creating a barrier to the apps for myself by only accessing them on my computer, I have greatly increased my reading time. I was able read the majority of the first Wheel of Time book in about 3 days. (The book is 744 pages!) I also finished reading ‘Home is Where the Bodies Are.’ (Not my favorite read.)

  • Back to Stop the Doomscroll

    Back at the beginning of the year, I made a decision to stop my doomscrolling habits. Now at the end of the first quarter, I can say, that habit did not go away and it maybe even got worse.

    I am here at the beginning of Quarter 2 to finally make and keep this promise and work on my habit of doomscrolling.

    But first, my current habit:

    My current weekly screen time

    As you can see, in a week’s time, Instagram stole (actually I gave them willingly) about 18 hours of my time. In a week.

    YouTube looks bad at almost 14 hours but for that, I mainly pop headphones on and listen to videos while I accomplish other things.

    Facebook wasn’t terrible at almost 2 hours in a full week but again, that’s two hours of sitting, scrolling, maybe interacting, but doing nothing.

    In a week, almost a full day was used on social media apps. A full day. 21 hours and 13 minutes.

    A goal needs steps. First steps:

    I have deleted Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn and Facebook from my phone. I can access them on my computer as needed, and with that, I can set aside an intentional amount of time in my office for using social media apps.

    Next week, I will check in with how this time compared to last time.

    Second step:

    If I feel like I want to scroll, I will read a book. I have nine books I am currently reading from my TBR pile. Let’s see how many of those I can finish with the 21 hours not being allocated to social media.

    Have you made similar time-management decisions? How did they affect your life?

  • Today I learned that Threads exists

    Right after I finally have the nerve to permanently delete my social media accounts from Instagram and Facebook, they come up with Threads. My profiles are now permanently deleted so I won’t be re-joining but I just had to laugh at the situation.

    I was also completely out of touch of the launch of Threads. I started seeing the name of the network on YouTube, my last remaining “social media” type of account, and I got confused. The branding of its posts looks similar to Twitter so I assume it’s Meta’s version of Twitter now that Twitter seems to be losing its user base and credibility.

    In any case, I’m glad to be rid of social media. I have my time and my mind back. I feel as if I’m rediscovering myself as I should have been able to do in my later teen years and early 20’s. Also glad that I never got into TikTok or else I may never have gotten to this point.

  • Show Review: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

    As any Gilmore Girls fan may know, Netflix just released an exclusive four-part season 8 of the series as a revival. I spent the last day watching them, and I have some thoughts to share. There will be spoilers down in this post, so if you haven’t seen the episodes yet, make sure to watch them before reading this.

    I want to start with Rory’s story part, as I can appreciate the struggle that she is facing in her career. She’s 32 and doesn’t have a full-time job or even a steady gig in journalism or writing even though she has a degree from Yale. She isn’t getting the job she had always dreamed of, just as she didn’t go to the school she had always dreamed of in the original series. This is a very relatable story path for those of us in that sort of age range. I can relate to having studied for a job, and then when the opportunity comes, I can’t sell myself to the potential employers, as she needed to do and failed for the website Sandee Says. This is a struggle of many in my age group and even those older than myself, and I truly appreciate that they wrote this as her story, rather than as the successful journalist everyone thought she would become.

    I also liked her relationship with Logan. It’s very true to both of their characters that they primarily meet in secret. I could never picture them getting married and having a family as Rory’s grandparents dreamed. Logan is also exceptionally kind to her, as only he could be as a lover. I can’t help but imagine him being like his father as a husband, so I enjoyed the impression of him that we were left with after the Life and Death Brigade reunion in the 4th episode.

    Lorelai’s story is simple but takes a turn as only Lorelai can do when she feels scared about what’s coming or not coming. We all knew that she and Luke had to get married, but of course, it couldn’t have been a linear path. This path also goes through her relationship with her mother, Emily, since her mother is the one trying to convey to her that getting married is different from just being together. This story through Lorelai’s relationship with her parents is a wonderful resolution. We see her and her mother struggling through therapy, which doesn’t do much for their relationship by itself but helps them begin to open up to one another. We also see Lorelai beginning to open up about her relationship with her late father and even sharing that with her mother.

    Emily is also facing her own struggle of self-searching and she is grieving the loss of her husband Richard. She is feeling her mortality but also learning who she is now that she has lost her other half. Before his death, her job was to manage her household to the approval and appreciation of her husband. Now she is figuring out how life will look for her as she is on her own. She even has a lively household since she unknowingly invited the maid and her family to live with her. We see a much warmer side to Emily, and it makes me happy to know that she is living outside of her sterilized, white-washed, wealthy community. I will admit that her volunteer job at the whale museum was a little weird, but I think it fit her character.

    Overall, this season is beautiful. We saw many of the familiar faces from before, even if it was only briefly. I can’t think of anyone that was missed from before. It was funny to see some of the actors back in Stars Hollow since some of them have grown in their career past the role they had played in this iconic series, but it was nice to see them back in those old roles. It felt like coming back home to the little world we had come to love in the town, and I couldn’t be happier with the resolution we were given. However, there is one part at the end that leaves me believing that we may hear more from our favorite town in Connecticut. I will leave you to discover what the infamous “last four words” are when you watch it for yourself.

    (opinions are my own, not sponsored, image from fanpop.com)