COOL APPS: Timehop

This is the first in a series of posts on my favorite mobile applications. Click on the tag “cool apps” for more posts.

Now that I’m officially in post-grad life, I have time to rekindle more fun blog topics. And another thing I’ve had more time to do is regularly check social media and Internet applications, now that I’m the happy owner of an iPad mini in addition to the iPhone 4S.

Earlier this summer, a few of my friends recommended I check out an app called “Timehop,” which connects your Facebook, Twitter feed, phone photos and news to provide a tailored “This Day in History” to your own life. It extracts this selection by showing you this information as a daily wrap-up, and how many years ago each photo or social post was. You are even able to share the posts as a link on social media, adding commentary to how much you miss it.

My first skepticism to downloading this app was the narcissistic Millennial stereotype. “Look at me, I’m so cool, I did this!” came to mind, and to some extent, that’s true. But what I learned after a few weeks of checking it out every couple of days was more importantly, seeing what I posted online and was doing in past summers motivated me to maintain an exciting life after college.

I’ve been lucky to have my three summers of college were spent doing things I really enjoyed. After freshman year, I interned at Project Mexico, traveled the East Coast and broke my arm in Chicago. After sophomore year, I studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, became as proficient in Spanish as I could be and had my first apartment living experience there with three amazing roommates who are still my friends. After junior year, I took advantage of what Chicago has to offer by exploring downtown after work, interning for the company I will begin a full-time job with in just a few weeks. So posts from all of these have been what have come up when I open the app’s daily wrap-up.

Since Facebook has been around for so long now, Timehop even extracts events from high school—whereas Twitter posts are more from the college years when the outlet launched. So “This Day in History”’s are actually incredibly interesting. For example, on May 29, GBN (my high school) had our senior Spring Fest and it showed pictures from that. The next year, I was recovering from going to four concerts (Ludacris, Nelly, Guster and Glee) in five days. Two years ago on that day, I was at lunch with the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of South America, and last year—I was starting work.

How is that not motivation to do something cool on May 29 of this year?  The same thing happened the other day when one day in July, my sisters and I went skydiving, and two years earlier, my Argentina friends and I were touring wineries in Mendoza.

Although it might just seem like another free app clogging your phone, Timehop inspires me to plan fun adventures and continue this explorative, traveling college lifestyle for the next couple of years. 

A self-test to mitigate phone anxiety

There is no doubt that we are addicted to our cell phones. In fact, another study was released last week that says seven in 10 Millennials keep their smartphone within five feet of themselves at all times. Think of how many people sleep with their phones. Or how many apps you receive push notifications for. Or how prevalent text messaging is to our daily lives, compared to what it was 10 years ago.

This past year of grad school, which was probably the most stressful school year of life in some capacities, was the first entire school year where I owned a smartphone. I upgraded to the iPhone a semester earlier, and was starting to adapt to the lifestyle of push notifications, iMessaging group MMS text conversations, email being right there and always being the owner of a GPS. Now, it was engrained into my daily routine. I woke up every morning at nearly 7 a.m. to my phone alarm and read email on my phone, mentally crafted a response, and typed them up on my computer an hour later when I was more awake. If I was making dinner and heard the email vibrate sound on my phone (which I only received from my school account), I immediately stopped and went to check what it was. It was so bad that if the phone rang while I was in the shower, I would get out to answer it so there would not be another item on my to do list to call that person back. I’m not kidding.

All of these habits caused what I think of as phone anxiety. I was anxious to receive answers to texts and emails, watching the “…” typing message or read receipts like a hawk.  When I was driving and the texting sound came through, I immediately had to check what it was and take the proper action, as unsafe as it is.

The noticeable difference in this phone anxiety came when I found my heart rate at a higher and higher rate over the pure sound of my phone. Hearing the vibrate buzz, Twitter ding or text/voicemail ring, my heart rate paced until I saw what the notification was. And rather than being an invigorating, exciting type of stress to see the message, it seemed unhealthy, dangerous and a burden. Societal expectations have placed pressure to respond or take action immediately, growing our impatience on both the sending and receiving end.

So now that school is over and I’m not being called to assistantships, campus activities or academic questions that might require immediate responses more so than other things, I’m trying the experiment of inviting media into my life. Living life first, and consuming mobile media second. By taking the vibrate sound off of my phone, and turning the ringtone off while I’m driving or getting important work done—I’m in control of when I do or don’t want to check what’s going on, hold a text conversation or respond to emails or Facebook messages.

Instead of hearing the ding, moving away from my resting heart rate and getting incredibly anxious, I can CHOOSE when to check and respond to everything. Sure, phones are intended for immediate communication when they ring and we all know how much I like to talk on the phone, but with so many mobile applications and social outlets calling our attention, I don’t want to get so engrained in those that I don’t realize what is going on right in front of me, or what other things I could be doing. I like to think I’ve been doing this for a while by never letting Facebook or Instagram send push notifications, but there is always room for improvement.

So wish me luck as I turn my phone on silent and check my phone when it’s the right time, sound like a plan?

Midwest road trip: highlights

Last week, I drove down to Mizzou to defend my master’s thesis and officially complete graduate school by doing so. I drove nearly 1,200 miles in less than seven days and stopped in five cities on the drive.

The spedometer hit 100,000 miles on the CRV right as I was leaving for Mizzou!

The journey began in St. Louis where I stopped on my way to Columbia to meet up with some friends for lunch. I got to catch up with Shelley, my pledge mom and great friend from my sorority, at the Chesterfield shopping center—as well as my friend Yianni who studied in Greece this past year. We met in downtown Kirkwood, an adorable strip of restaurants and shopping. Having not spent much time in college caring about St. Louis, it made me smile to know I have some friends there and really check the city out.

Shelley and I getting frozen yogurt in St. Louis

After a few hours there, I went to Columbia to finish my degree requirements and spend quality time with my roommate Shaina, who is the only one of our roommates living in the apartment this summer. The rest of us sublet our rooms to three freshmen girls, so I was rather surprised to see about six to seven people living in our apartment throughout the time I stayed there. They had people on the couch, people who would come over at 11 p.m. — when I realized college is really the only time a living situation can be that insane. Needless to say, it was definitely a laugh-worthy experience and made for some funny stories. I got to see a few friends, sorority sisters and many of my teachers while at Mizzou too, which was a good way to say goodbye for the time being.

Holding the official document proving the passing of my thesis defense

Kansas City is one of my favorite Midwest cities because of the rich amount of entertainment opportunities it offers, the beautiful Plaza area to walk around and some fun places to go out. Not only did I get to see my friends’ Helen and Steve’s new apartment and hang out at their fratty pool, but I also got to see the Davison family and assorted friends, who have always kindly welcomed me to their home throughout college. We didn’t even need to go to museums or plan activities for the weekend, because there was enough to do just seeing each other and making plans without over-programming ourselves.

Steve, Helen, me, Laura, Adrian, Ryan and Talia at dinner at Gram & Dum on the Plaza in Kansas City 

Instead of driving back through Missouri, it was more ideal to drive through Iowa on 35 North to 80 East to get back home—estimated as an 8.5 hour drive. After the first four hours on the phone, I needed a break and looked at a map to see what was around. Iowa City, where University of Iowa is located, was right off the highway I was driving on so I decided to make a pit stop. Why not check out another college campus? I was mildly impressed—seeing Iowa City as a combination between Illinois’s campus in Champaign and Miami of Ohio’s campus in Oxford.

The back side of University of Iowa's "quad"

After dinner with Yiayia and Papou at my last stop in DeKalb, I made it home safely by 10 p.m. after nine hours on the road. Definitely a fun, bittersweet way to end the summer after graduation!