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IT’S WEEK TWO of our Live A Better Life series, and it’s all about challenging yourself.
On the 10th day of the series, we’re looking at what’s bothering us about our phone, and whether that can lead to unnecessary stress.
This can be something big, or something tiny. But it’s something that’s niggling at you.
Sometimes, we have small things that bother us that hover in the background, causing us minute but still noticeable stress.
A 2014 study shows that ‘hassles’, or small stresses, can actually affect mortality in men. It found that people with ‘medium hassles’ that increased in late life had a 63% higher mortality risk, while those with consistently high hassles “had independent effects on mortality”.
Should your phone be a hassle? No.
(Here’s a longer read about studies on the affect of stress on our health.)
That’s why we should try and curb the amount of little stresses something like a phone brings to our lives.
So today:
Here are some examples our writers shared:
I had a spot on my camera lens for months that drove me to distraction. I even left it into a repair place to get it fixed. It eventually went away but it was stressful.
Anytime a permission gets enabled unexpectedly and things don’t work the way they should will have me stressed until I’ve fixed it.
I hate not getting notifications from some apps. You have to change about a hundred settings on my phone to always get them.
I had an old phone that was stressing me out by freaking out and hitting random buttons whenever it was on an Edge connection. I fixed this by… getting a new phone. But seriously that was driving me insane. I forgot that it was actually nice sometimes to use a smartphone.
Memory really stressed me out. Now I have Google photos, so all my photos are automatically saved to it whenever I connect to wifi (so if I lose my phone I still have my pictures). When that filled up I just bought more Google Photos storage, which wasn’t expensive. Cheaper than buying a harddrive. It’s great cos I don’t have to stress all the time about clearing my memory.
The phone I have now is slow to open apps, open the camera, the keyboard freezes frequently etc. It’s an old phone and it used to drive me absolutely mad. I switched back to after dropping my new one in the loo (three weeks after I got it) and I actually find all of that less annoying. I think it’s because I’m generally more zen about my phone anyway, so I put it away from me more frequently at home and the keyboard issue forces me to take breaks from texting and just call people.
Don’t have an issue with your phone? Then happy days. Enjoy the break.
Join us next week when we’ll be looking at the major tech stressors that can bother you, from questions about your bill to how to make sure your phone privacy is secure.
Let us know how the second week of Live A Better Life has been going for you in the comments.
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Why are the 3 Stooges all fake fighting now
@Mick O’K: Not fake fighting. While in coalition with each other, they were means to an end as far as each other were concerned. FF and FG were so scared of SF that they shacked up together but still had not the numbers for a majority between them. The GP wanted into power and used that fear of SF to get what they wanted by throwing their lot in with FF/FG. However, if SF had been open to coalition the last time around, the GP would have hopped into bed with them just as easy to get into power. Now that the term is over, they will cut the feet from under each other to get votes, and when everything is totted up, they will all jump into bed with each other. So it’s real fighting, but they will be slappers after the election and climbing into bed with each other.
The greens are a disaster. End of.
@Fergus O’Donnell: FFFG are the disaster we need a change of govt
@Fergus O’Donnell: They’re all a disaster. Unfortunately there isn’t an alternative. Independents, Aontu, PBP etc just won’t have the numbers. I certainly don’t want Sinn Féin about the place. They sold their soul and they just jump on whatever is popular at any given time
ROG lied before, during and after the referendums that were his responsibility…. Also during among many national emergencies including the one in housing, he thought it wise to send an invitation to the world in multiple languages..
@Michale Kane: The man has caused nasty deep divisions In Irish society. He was a failure in his Dept & singlehandedly in two years destroyed Tourism along the Western seaboard, an Industry that took decades to build & which thousands of people depend on to make a living. His Tweet is one of the big pull factors into Ireland & his madness is costing us the Taxpayer Billions every year now. His lies during the Referendums were thankfully leaked & exposed as was his former leader Eamon Ryan’s lies exposed this week in an SEAI report that they had doctored to misinform the people. A corrupt party, they need to be destroyed.
@SV3tN8M4: les, lies and more lies
@Michale Kane: I don’t think you should use the ROG acronym for that pathetic individual. People might think you’re talking about a winner.
O’Gorman is widely despised, know as one of the architects of the coalitions de facto open border immigration policy. He will be remembered for sending out a multi language invitation to “asylum ” seekers all around the world , promising ” your own front door”! He will not be missed.
@Declan Young:
Where are all these anti immigration voters? You had an opportunity to vote for them last summer and they got 1.3%.
No anti immigration party gets enough traction in the polls to even register.
Seems to be a lot of party activists online desperately trying to appear as anything other than an utterly irrelevant minority.
The three of em now pretend arguing, after 4 yrs of patin one another on the pack and expressing upmost confidence in one another… pure bolixoligy …
Hutch might just get himself elected. There is anger out there. Now, what his policies will be or what he is standing for that is a different matter. But when you think of it, a solicitor in Cork was jailed using down and outs PPSNs. And this was a guy who had or was going to, run for FG. So, how many TDs in the Dail have done stuff and just not been caught.
@AnthonyK: I’m not sure if the authorities in Lanzarote have seized his passport after his release or not… however I agree- if I was a betting Woman I’d defo put money on him. Nothing could possibly surprise me in this farce of a Country anymore.
@AnthonyK: I give up. Tell us, how many?
@AnthonyK: Doh!! Just seen the article sorry…
@Donna Fallon: He’s back in Dublin today, so he has his Passport.
@Gerard Carey: Oh I know Gerard I only copped it after I’d posted that!! Irony was I was only leaving the CCJ at the time and ggggrrr with the inconsistency of Judgements…
@Gerard Carey: Just because he had a passport boarding the flight doesn’t mean he has one when landing, it’s a terrible affliction that’s at an all time high.
@The next small thing: Oh too true it’s an absolute joke isn’t it??
@Donna Fallon: He has his passport
I didn’t think that the Greens could pick a more bumbling and deluded leader than Eamon Ryan, yet here we are having to deal with O’Gorman. The fact that someone someone and incompetent as him could get even near the Dáil, let alone be in government, is an indictment on the people who actually thought that they were doing the right thing by voting him in. If there is one outcome that I hope happens in the next election, it is that the Greens get wiped out. All of the parties in the Dáil are fools in their own right, but the Greens take the cake for being the worst.
@Frank O’Hara: Have to agree, the Greens are in a class of their own!
By the way there is no way in hell either of these two will be reelected, but as usual they will be stuck in the Seanad,
to keep their egos and sense of self-importance.
Great little country
Maybe they’d like a less smug and less delusional coalition partner Roderic?
@Fergus O’Donnell: outdoing their own smugness?
The guy is a deluded ideologue.
Nobody wants to sit next to the sanctimonious I-told-you-so prat.
The damage inflicted by the Greens from unused bike lanes to trashing forestry and demonising rural folk is immense.
Jayusssssss need these out
Remember faceache from the Buster comics.
Its a pity Woderic (Billy-no-mates) hasn’t a friend to take him aside and tell him a few home truths!
The greens won’t be marginalised out of the next government as o’gorman claims.they will have on tds.
I’m still waiting to see why exactly people are lumping so much hate on the Greens? As far as I can see they’re the only party that had the guts to bring in policies that are unpopular in the short term but have a big benefit in the long term. It was like pulling teeth getting FFG to commit to the Zoned Land Tax
@Evan: money, money from my pocket, our pockets isn’t going to stop climate change Evan
@Mick O’K: If you’re talking about the Carbon Tax, was that not coming from the EU anyway?
@Evan: No, it was tgeir choice to hot everyone with a carbon tax and not the worst polluters, the rich. Ironic as the rich are their biggest supporters.
@Evan: On the contrary (Irish) Green policy is to ensure the ordinary guy pays for the sins of big business.
@Evan: If you honestly cannot see why Rodders is getting hate, you are not worth the engagement.
@ckNAvKEk: It’s probably Woderic himself that is replying to you!
@ckNAvKEk: That’s fairly harsh isn’t it, just trying to figure out what exactly people are so annoyed about. Can’t see how the Greens’ tax policy has been any different from FFG
@Evan: Maybe, if we want to improve the country’s carbon footprint, ROG shouldn’t have invited all scam immigrants of the world to come here and be guaranteed their own front door key. Unpopular in the short term and damaging in the long term
@Thomas Sheridan: Again, completely fair point that there’s a serious problem there, but not sure how this is specifically the Greens’ fault?
@Evan: the forest industry has Bern effectively destroyed. The regulation is so extreme, very little land can be planted. The Greens have fellow travellers in the Forest Service, people so opposed to commercial forestry thst they have worked lo g sbd gard to strangle it once and fir all. These foresters have a degree in forestry but no practical experience. The cost in unlocked carbon fines because of no more planting will be immense
These public service traitors don’t care…their nests are well feathered and they never understood what forestry is.
@Evan: Really, you can’t see why? For a start, the DRS is a debacle. It is meant to be a deposit scheme to ensure that people return plastic bottles and cans, but people were already returning them through our recycling bins, which we still have to pay for along with the deposits. As to getting deposits back, much of the time, the machines are full. When they are working, the slightest damage on an item leads to rejection, losing the deposit, and finally, I’ve learned lately that 2 families I know are after giving up trying to store the items safely and just gone back to putting them into their recycle bins and forfeiting the deposit. And, that is not even mentioning the constant introduction of enviromental based tax increases in the face of a cost of living crisis.
It’s not that FG or FF would prefer a ‘less robust’ partner. Just one that isn’t batshit crazy. A partner that considers the entire electorate in its decision making as opposed to a few wealthy eccentrics in leafy suburbs of South Dublin. And just wait til you see what Trump has in store for the robes and sandals zealots. When he says drill baby, drill, he’s not referring to black and decker! A very welcome end to the woke bollocks that’s a real threat to the world.
Well Roderic get used to sitting at home on the 1st of December. Here’s hoping I never get to see you or Greedy Greens again from the 1st of December.
Well that rules SF out. If I had a euro for every time they use the word ‘robust’ I’d be wealthy by now.
@Alan: And he brings Sinn Féin into it, when were they in government in the south? Oh, never
@Brian D’Arcy: thankfully, never is right.
A horrible, nasty, destructive, useless party is the only way to describe the Green party. Hopefully they will be eradicated from the political landscape once and for all. No country can afford a shower like this in government.
No Socio-economic policies is why the hit everyone, not the worst polluters in the rich.
Like the Labour Lackeys..
By that he presumably means a party with sensible ideas and competent leaders?
Maybe less pain in the hole
have your say