Tech Talk: New Year's Resolutions about Technology Use

Tech Talk with Lisa Hendey/Son Rise Morning Show (CatholicMom.com)

On a recent episode of the Son Rise Morning Show, we discussed making New Year's resolutions related to technology and social media.

Many of us are talking about resolutions this week with the flip of the calendar to 2019. Are you a resolution maker?
- I make resolutions every year. In recent years, I've set the same number of "goals" as the year we are starting - so 19 goals for this year. Several of them have to do with technology.
Why is important for us to consider setting technology-related resolutions or goals for the New Year?
- According to a recent Pew study, 77% of Americans are online daily, with 26% who go online almost constantly, as well as 43% who say they go online several times a day. With so many of us using screens this much, it makes sense to me that we would look at how to use them for maximum impact and minimum trouble.
Do you have any good resolution solutions related to our usage of social media?
- I'll share my own personal goals for using social media in 2019:
  - Continue to employ Screen Time tool on my iPhone to track my progress
  - Be more mindful and judicious when accepting friend requests on social media to connect only with either real-world connections or with people who will be most helpful to me in meeting my personal and spiritual goals
  - Create public content to share my faith that is not limited to sharing with my friends and be mindful that for many people, I will be the only Catholic they connect with online. I must take this responsibility seriously and realize that the content I create always matters, regardless of the number of people who see it.
This is also a great time to resolve to be more careful in our use of digital tools. What are a few of your safety-related resolutions?
- My number-one safety goal is to end technology-related distracted driving by modifying my own behavior. I have also started privately connecting with friends who create content while driving to politely ask them to reconsider this dangerous behavior.
- Another great goal at this time of the year is to reset passwords and delete unused accounts. A tool such as Lastpass can be very helpful in setting secure passwords.
Are there any good tools or apps to help us with our prayer resolutions in the New Year?
- Many folks are employing Jennifer Fulwiler's Word of the Year and Saint's Name Generators to create spiritual themes and saintly companions for the New Year.
- If you're looking to create a new prayer routine in 2019, check out the Hallow App which was launched in December.
- I use both a paper journal and Evernote to document and track progress on my resolutions. Remember, it's not to late to set goals and we will all fail at times along the way. This is all about mindful use of technology.

Listen to the full conversation, courtesy of the Son Rise Morning Show! https://soundcloud.com/sacred-heart-radio/lisa-hendey-new-years-tech-resolutions Read more of our Tech Talk columns.