Author: Chase Blosser

Is Social Media Toxic In Large Amounts?

/ Chase Blosser / 2 Comments

This #is a response to the one-word prompt “Toxic” by “The Daily Post.”

#In light of the controversy around FaceBook right now, it seems a good time as any to discuss the effect that #social #media as a whole has on society. There is no doubt that social media in the likes of FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIN, and so-forth have been a major boon for society in terms of better and faster connectivity for individuals and groups, but at what costs?

While we as a society may be more connected then ever; are we really getting anything out of that connectivity or is it just giving us a false sense of connectivity? In other words are we actually connected and/or spending time with each other, our family, friends, etc. The consensus and research says no we are not; we are actually as a society feeling more lonelier than ever. This despite the fact of how much time people are spending on social media. We humans are social animals who need social contact with others, but as it turns out that social contact actually needs to be physical or in other words “real.”

Social media platforms like FaceBook or LinkedIn can be useful in helping us to maintain contact but only if they remain just that, a ‘magnifier” or addition not a replacement for “traditional” face to face in real life meetings. To put it another way social media in small docidges are extremely helpful, but in #large #amounts are actuallly #toxic to what they are meant to help, that being social contact.

What Are Your Thoughts and ViewPoints on this subject? Please do share them, all are welcomed and wanted.

Do You Worry To Much?

/ Chase Blosser / 4 Comments

This is a response #to the one-word “Warning” by “The Daily Post.”

How often #do #you #worry day-to-day; what do you worry about? Why do you worry? We all worry about different things and different times in our lives. To have worries is not the problem, for “to worry” is to put importance on/for something. The problem lies in the number of worries we get in our lives and what exactly we worry about.

A  common worry is for our loved ones. Of course, that is a good worry to have if there is actually something wrong that is affecting them in a negative way. The worry creates an “importance” for you to do what you can to help your loved ones. But that worry is not so good if it continues even when you know you have already done all that you possibly could do to help. Then all that happens is an increase of stress on your part that may very well affect your health. That will do nothing good to help your loved one’s situation but actually, make things worse for they will have to worry about you.

When one starts to worry about someone or something, in most cases that “worry” can and will only cause one to “act” in a positive way, and to put what the worrying is about as a priority in one’s life. Only when that “worry” continues does it become a problem for you and those around you. Some worry is good, but too #much is never good and in fact is quite harmful.

What are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share, all are welcomed and wanted here. 

Getting Discipline In My Life

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I want to be successful #in #my business. I want/need to lose weight. I need to manage my time better. These wants/needs I am sure sound pretty familiar to you. You probably have very similar if not the same ones right now or have had them in the past. The most important thing I have found in pursuing these wants/needs or any others is that they all require #discipline on my part. Lots of and constant discipline.

Discipline to recognize what needs to be done, and discipline to come up with a strategy to achieve my wants and needs. But most importantly of all discipline to stick with it. No plan no matter how good can help you to succeed at anything in #life if you don’t have some very good discipline. It is as simple and complicated as that; no discipline, no success.

How do I get my discipline? I get it by how much I actually want whatever it is I am working for. If I really want something and am willing and able to do what needs to be done to get/achieve it, then I will be able to better develop my discipline as in move forward in my goal/s. This here is important to remember, discipline comes not all at once but in stages; as I work for what I want/need I get a little more disciplined in doing so.

Discipline is a lot like a muscle, the more you work for it the more and stronger it gets. Yet, the less you work at it, like a muscle it will atrophy. In the end, in order to develop and have good discipline to achieve your wants/needs requires you to change your habits and/or get new ones.  Discipline never just happens, it comes a little bit at a time because you work for it and change how you go about your life in response to your wants/needs.

What do you think about this subject? What are your thoughts and viewpoints? Please do share them, all are welcomed and wanted.

How Many Branches Does Your Life Hold?

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This is a response to the one-word prompt “Branch” by “The Daily Post.”

#How much responsibility are you juggling in #your #life? How #many “#branches” do you have going out from you in all that you do? We all have, every one of us more than one thing or concern in life that occupies our time and energy. At different times in our lives, we tend to have fewer than others and at other times we can tend to have more. It all depends on us as a person and what drives us throughout our lives, and of course what drives us #does change as our lives evolve.

In managing all the things, concerns and/or responsibilities that we take on in our lives because of what drives us, we tend to resemble a tree with all its different branches. Each “branch” represents for us our many different areas of responsibility, the more we have the more “branches” we have. Here inline comes the problem for us.

With trees where the number of branches one has depends on its overall size and ability to support the branches; small trees have fewer, smaller branches then big trees do. So too is it with us and our “branches,” there are only so many branches that each one of us can support depending on our skills, knowledge, and so forth.

The problem is in the fact a lot of times we tend to be trying to support more “branches” then we are really able to. We constantly complain and groan about all the work and things we have to do in our lives, yet also at the same time keep adding more and more things to do/handle.

Our problem in life is not that our lives are too hard it is that we don’t seem to know how to properly manage our “branches” of responsibilities. Until we do so, we will continue to be overworked and overwhelmed by that we do in our lives. The key to being able to manage such is to recognize and know our limits as well as to stay within them.

So how many “branches” of responsibilities do you have and is the number bigger or smaller than what you can handle?  Do you know your limit to the number of “branches” you can #hold?

What are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share, all thoughts are welcomed and wanted.

 

Only Games Have Restarts; Not Real Life, Or Does It?

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This is a response to the one-word prompt “Restart” by “The Daily Post.”

For all those who grew up playing video/computer #games (who hasn’t in the United States) #or still plays the occasional game here or there, the “save spot” and “restart” features of those games most likely became an important aspect of use when playing. The ability to save one’s progress and then come back later and pick up where left off. Or the ability to restart the game when you #have made too many mistakes to recover from and wish for a second, third, fourth, fifth chance, etc.. at the game. These features of the video/computer game are nice to have, but I think #it can be hard to remember sometimes that those futures are #only in games and #not #real #life.

I think we tend to sometimes wish we had the “save&restart” feature in real life that we have in our favorite video/computer game/s; (I know I do sometimes).  In fact, what is the appeal to such games at heart other than as a means to escape at least for a little while our real-life issues? Yes, we play them for the adventure, action, mystique, intrigue, and so forth; but only because that is what a lot of us really want out of our mundane lives.

With all the uncertainty in our lives from jobs, future career, the economy, politics, news, and so forth; it is not only easy to be drawn into the fantasy of the “gaming world,” to “lose oneself,” but also to wish what we get in those games we could get from our real lives. In some ways, the very act of playing video/computer games is a “save/pause/restart” on “real life” because when we are playing our games we are not focusing on nor worrying about what is going on in our lives in the real world.

There is some good from this aspect of playing computer games, as a distraction from real life, real-world issues; in that it can help elevate some of the stress and lets us relax and “recharge” ourselves. The danger is in the fact that we can become too “glued” to our computer games and lose face with reality as well as what is more important (life or game life). While there is no actual real “save/restart” in real life like in the games we play; when we lose ourselves in them, the games themselves sure can feel as such for a time.

A good video/computer game is always fun to enjoy and perhaps lose one’s self in for a time, but not at the expense of our “real” lives. We need to make sure that as we enjoy those games that they do not hold us back nor confuse our two worlds.

What are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share them, all are welcome and wanted here.

The Want For And Not Liking The Simple Answers

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This is a response to #the one-word prompt “Simplify” by “The Daily Post.”

Why is that throughout all our lives, we always strive to make them better #and easier and to simplify our lives, yet when we are provided with “#simple #answers” to certain problems in our lives, we in a lot of cases have a dislike #for that “simple answer?” I think one of if #not the main reason for this strange contradicting desire is the confusing of simple with easy.

To have or make something simple is not always to have/make it easy, sometimes this is the case but not always.  What making things “simple” does is while not making the actual taking care of the problem/thing/event easier, it does make the understanding of what needs to be done and how a little easier.

This in its self can make all the difference both on our individual problems with the “simple answers” and in our lives in general, because we are more able to solve those problems and get them done, out of the way faster and for good.

What a lot of people don’t like a lot of times with the “simple answers” they get, is that we as humans tend to #want instant gratification and want the actual work of doing/solving our life problems to be easier.  So we sometimes think that the job requires complexed, thought out plans. The problem here is that in the more complexed the answer the more likely to overlook some “little” things, so that while we may be able to get the things/problems done, it still leaves us having to come back to it, or creating other new things/problems for us to deal with. This in no way makes our lives easier.

With “simple answers” for the planning out and deciding what needs to be done, we are when actually working on the issue/s more able to see all the “little” issues involved in the big issue, and thus take them into account in the answer.  “Simple” is while not always the answer, is and can be in a lot of cases if we are willing to do a little more actual work in taking care of them in order for the rest of our lives to be easier. Simplifying sacrifices short-term easy for long-term easy.

So what are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share them, all are welcomed and wanted.

Be Sincere, ​Not Profuse When Apologizing

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This is a response to the one-word prompt “Profuse” by “The Daily Post.”

#When was the last time you had to apologize to someone for something you did? Did the person forgive/accept the apology? If #not, perhaps it was because your apology was too #profuse and longwinded as well as not sounding too #sincere.

When people apologize, too often they don’t sound sincere in doing so. This could #be due to a variety of reasons, but for simplicity, I will give you two; either they have apologized for the same thing to many times and thus are not believable, or they are so desperate for you to accept their apology that they feel the need to “play it up” and in great detail explain why they are sorry and how they will “do/be better.”

The thing is when apologies are really called for both sides usually already know full well the “reasons why” thus the person being apologized to is not really interested in hearing why. So, they are less inclined to take such apologies seriously, let alone believe them to be sincere.

When you make a mistake or have wronged someone, and you know you are truly regretful and repentant, then all that is truly needed to be done is say so to the wronged person. No explanation and/or “playing up” is necessary nor appropriate.  Whoever you are #apologizing to will know that you are truly sincere if you really are just by you being straight up and “short and sweet” in your apologizing.

What about those who don’t know they were wronged; you ask. Even then no long deep explanations are wanted nor needed, nor is “playing up” the apology. In this case, all one should do is say “I am sorry for______.” That is all; keep it short, simple, honest, and straightforward. When one says “I am sorry” those words need to mean something!

So what are your thoughts on the subject? Please do share, all thoughts and viewpoints are welcomed and wanted here. 

I am an Inkling; Are You?

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This is a response to the one-word prompt “Inkling” by “The Daily Post.”

The word #inkling means to have a slight knowledge or suspicion. It was also the name of #an informal intellectual group of friends in the early 20th century, started by four author/writers being J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. If #you don’t know of Lewis and Tolkien, you need to get out of your mom’s basement!

There were a few other members/associates of the group such as Lewis’s older brother, but the group mainly consisted of those four. They named themselves “Inklings” after there many meetups and informal group intellectual discussions.

If inkling means to have a slight knowledge or hint of something more, then a reason the  four authors perhaps named themselves as such could be that they believed that individually they did not know too much, but by coming together to share and discuss ideas, they actually did begin to gain a “slight knowledge about things/life in general; thus becoming “Inklings” in the knowing a little bit more about things then they would otherwise.

#Are you an “Inkling?” Do you have a group of friends/colleagues that meet to share ideas to gain a “slighter knowledge of things in this world?  Who are these people in this group of yours; or do you have more than one?

#I can think of more than a few small groups that I #am a part of and meet with regularly that would make me an “Inkling,” for I do consider my self to have a “slighter increase in knowledge of things after each and every discussion, that I would not have had without.

The four “original Inklings” before my time perhaps; but that does not make me and those in my groups any less an “Inkling.” We get the same benefits they did in their group discussions and learn things that we very well may not have without the group discussions just as they constantly did.  So too is it with you and anyone else who has an “Inkling” group.

So, do you have an “Inkling” group/s? If so, do you consider yourself an “Inkling;” why or why not? If you get a slight knowledge of things that you would not otherwise in your group discussions than that makes you an “Inkling.” Acknowledge that fact, embrace it; become a “member” of one of the well-known informal intellectual group of friends in history.

So what are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share, all are welcomed and wanted. I want to know my “Fellow Inklings.”

To be “A Blink of the Eye”

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This is #a response #to #the one-word prompt “Blink” by “The Daily Post.”

What exactly is meant by the phrase “a #blink in the #eye” or “a blink #of the eye?” Obviously is it is referring to the blinking of one’s eye/s. Usually, it refers to the speed of the blinking and how fast it happens. So when you describe something happening as “a blink of the eye” you are saying that it either has or will happen so fast that you will miss it if not paying attention. That is how the phrase is usually used but, I think it could just as easily mean and refer to the ease of blinking one’s eyes and thus suggesting something may #be very easy.

More Political Division or Perhaps Unity In 2018?

/ Chase Blosser / Leave a comment

The year of 2017 was an ugly, crazy year when it came to just how divided we as a nation and people became #in the United States. Most will not dispute that, although they will dispute the reasons for it. That right there is the deeper problem, as long as we keep blaming each other and not understanding each other, the divide will only get worse and grow until it destroys us.

Ok, so we all know and agree on what the problem is (extream #political divisiveness) if that is the case there is no need to blame the problem on anyone #or thing. Doing so will only aggravate the problem not solve it. The key to solving any problem is to first recognize that there is one and what it is; as said, that we have done.

So if the problem is that we as a nation just can’t agree on politics and governing, then the answer is not to create #more areas of disagreement and argument, but to create more areas of agreement and understanding. Despite just how divided we are, this is a whole lot easier then it may sound. It is not “brain science” (although we make it that with our stubbornness).

All that needs to be done is that we start to talk to each other, to understand each other. We need to connect and empathize with each other; to know that we all each have our own concerns, fears, and hopes for our lives, our communities, and our nation. By doing so we will then be able to find and see just all the many small ways we #perhaps do agree rather than just where we disagree. We will then be able to move forward in those areas that we agree on, and that in time will allow us to even tackle the issues we are in disagreement on.

Be forewarned that going this route will require a lot of patience, restraint, understanding, and it needs to be done at all levels of our society. It needs to be done in the family, the neighborhood, our churches/houses of worship and the broader community as well as in our political/governing institutions. It needs to be a truly grassroots movement from the very bottom to the very top.

This restoring understanding and seeing areas of agreements instead of areas of disagreement and not knowing each other is and can be achieved, but only if we all work towards this goal and do so every day both in our everyday lives and in our “political discourse.” But it can be done and must if our nation is to survive and thrive! So stop arguing and start understanding!

What are your thoughts and viewpoints on this subject? Please do share them. All are welcomed and wanted.