Ben’s initial response to my question was “we need love.” I asked him to further elaborate on what he meant by that. To which, he replied “ there is a supreme being- or whatever higher power you believe in- that put us here for a purpose. That purpose is to shine out light, and a pet of that is showing love.” I asked him in what ways did he mean? Hi response- “being compassionate, kind, and caring towards others.” I asked who specifically, he stated “showing love to everything; humans, other species, the earth. No matter what you do, if you approach it with love- everything will be okay.” Furthermore he told me, “love has the power to bring people together despite our differences, it heals wounds and creates unity and understanding among people who are usually so divided, and it just overall makes the world a better place.”

Interviewing Ben, I gathered that he was an incredibly kind hearted individual- the kind you would want to have an impact on todays youth. He loves his God, and believes that there can be good in everyone. He was smiling, and energetic when answering my questions and it further showed me how much he really values the importance of love. Overall, I think Ben’s message of love and kindness is something that we can all learn from and apply in our daily lives. With more love in the world, anything is possible.

The piece of technology that I have chosen to forego the next two days is the Amazon Alexa. I rely heavily on these devices (more than I thought I had originally) and was impacted pretty significantly by it. I live in a two floor home, with my son and myself. We have two Alexa’s for the bedrooms, one for the upstairs bathroom, and one in the kitchen. I use this device daily as an alarm clock- which also reads out the weather for the day (if I’m not hitting snooze the whole time.) The Alexa also helps keep time when I am cooking in the kitchen, if my son wants five more minutes of play time before bed, and has a drop in feature that allows me to call into his room if he’s upstairs playing to check in on him. 

I woke up today, to my phone alarm. I was incredibly nervous going to bed last night without my Alexa alarm set . I used to not wake up to my phone alarms, resulting in me being tardy for work on occasion. So when my Alexa didn’t go off (I unplugged them all the night before,) it shocked me awake a little. I got out of bed, checked my phone for the weather, and dressed myself and got ready for the rest of the day. My usual news podcast I listen to in the morning was available on my cell phone, so I let that play while I got ready. I typically have Alexa play something for my puppies who are kenneled when I go to work, and instead opted to turn the TV on for them, so they had some background noise while I was away from home. Once my son and I arrived home from work, I manually had to turn the tv off instead of saying “Alexa off” to turn off the program they had listened to all day long. My son went to his room to play with his hot wheels ramp while I did some laundry and decided what to make for dinner. Instead of calling into his room with the Alexa, I had to yell up stairs to get his attention once dinner was prepared. Instead of night sleep sounds that we play for him to fall asleep to at night, I laid in bed with him for awhile and sang him a lullaby and rubbed his back until he went to sleep, I quite enjoyed this task. I am a single mom, and have a house to take care of. Which I usually do once he’s fast asleep or in bed. But it was nice to take a break and just enjoy my time getting him to sleep for the night. Something I may be more mindful of in the future. Instead of having my Alexa set an alarm for me to wake up for work, I double checked my cell phone alarms, and went to sleep. I think overall, I was surprised how inconvenient it was to not have my Alexa plugged in. I rely on it heavily. I feel like not having it forced me to be more involved- which is a good thing. 

3/28/2023

I woke up today slightly panicked due to hitting snooze on my phone alarm too many times. I ended up being late for work, and took my time getting ready this morning. Gunnar and I enjoyed breakfast together (something that typically only happens on the weekends) and took our time getting to school and work for the day. While this can be seen as a negative, I was greatful to spend a few early morning hours with my son before he left for school for the day- and then to his dads house for the night. Before we left, I again left the tv on something for background noise for the puppies and walked about of the house to start my day. When I arrived home later on, I grew slightly frustrated when I had forgotten I unplugged the Alexa and tried to turn the tv off saying “Alexa off.” Once I had realized why it wouldn’t shut off I kind of laughed at myself. I sat down to do homework for my other classes, and then got up to prepare dinner. I decided this day to bake cookies as well. So when I went to ask Alexa to set the bake time timer, she didn’t answer. I remembered to set one on my phone, but not until I realized it was already baking for a few minutes. When I went to the bathroom to take a bath later that night, I had forgotten that my Alexa was not plugged in, and had to listen to my audible book via my phone instead. And when I got ready for sleep, I had to triple check my alarms so I was not late for work for the second day in a row.