A new year comes with new resolutions, and sometimes they’re hard to keep. Whether it’s losing twenty pounds, fighting your chocolate cravings, or saving more money, we all have promises that we keep to ourselves.
While many people choose resolutions that involve their health or finances, some of us choose to evaluate and improve upon our technology habits. Here are some tips and resolutions I’ve made to myself for 2013.
Remember That Starting Is The Hardest Part
Many New Year’s resolutions are hard to keep. Whether you’re trying to go to the gym, eat healthier, or ride your bike to work once a week, it’s tough. Technology can be hard to get into at first. Perhaps you’re researching new tablets to buy, exploring a new social network, learning a new programming language, or buying a new computer. It’s important to remember that starting these things is always the hardest part.
For example, last year, I was one of many who tried to learn to code with Codecademy. Unfortunately, I stopped using the program after two weeks, but I urge you to try and stick with it. Soon enough, you’ll feel bad for not doing it. Push past the initial challenges and keep at it. You’ll be more knowledgeable by the end of the year and may even have some cooler gadgets to utilize.
Remember The Popular Opinion Isn’t Always The Right One
On social media, it’s easy to post and share your own ideas. However, it’s also easy to disagree with people and get in arguments. If you follow, friend, or share information with people like yourself, it can be easy to see only one school of thought. Search beyond that. Meet new people. Try to understand the way other people think. Explore other ways people share their opinions.
The Internet holds an unbelievable amount of information, and it’s important to take advantage of that. Don’t always go with what people will think will be the “next big thing” or who will be the next Internet sensation. Form your own opinions and share them with others.
Get To The Point
Twitter is beautiful in that you are forced to be concise. Facebook lets you post longer statuses, and Tumblr lets you blog about whatever it is that interests you. Regardless of which social media platforms you use, get right to the point. People don’t like to read or wait around for information that can be quickly obtained elsewhere.
It irks me when people share stories on Twitter that take up five tweets. It would be more efficient to tweet a link to a blog post with an explanation of your idea rather than take up space on a timeline. It is so easy to share, but Internet real estate is precious. Try to share valuable information, and share it in the right location. It’s just as easy to lose someone’s attention as it is to grab it, so be conscious of that.
Strive to Find Out Why
I recently became interested in web development and had some difficulty in a web design class I was taking. We started to learn jQuery and I struggled to understand the responsibilities of each coding language and how they communicated with one another. I reached out to a web professor and friend of mine who urged me to look for answers right underneath my nose.
He suggested I review all of my code and see what parts related to each other. I realized that even when working with technology, sometimes it’s better to think like a regular person, rather than a technical person. It’s easier to see relationships between things when you aren’t so focused on finding the answer. Being patient (another personal resolution of mine) and just reading through your work can go along way.
What are your tech resolutions? What do you think of these tips and ideas? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
