‘In Module Ten, students discuss areas of the system that require management post implementation. As with any system moved to production . . . .’ AAANNNDD SNOOZE. I know what you’re thinking, how can I possibly mow over this type of monotone in my head for long periods of time?

Can you tell that it’s from watching the screen for long periods of time? Watching my favorite music videos. Logging into emails. Hitting Next to that Netflix show. I’m currently on ‘The OA’ by the way. After finishing ‘The Umbrella Academy,’ it only made sense.

But back to the main point, how can I, Black Girl Magic, get comfortable in reading reports, data, news casting, and analytics when most of the time my head is dazing towards Pantone color swatches and Afro-House music. I will tell you why. Because it’s my language. It’s what helps me speak Portuguese while in a world that never stops talking. And if I do it well, others start speaking Portuguese back 🙂 .

Posting Is Caring

I found out that I could use technology to speak for me in other ways as well. Growing up, I had difficulty assimilating to surroundings because a lot of emigration happened. Moving to a new country; learning a new language; having native tongue dissonance – then building a healthy immune system to my new life. So, when technology came into my path, I was relieved to get the familiar feeling of a ‘natural acknowledgement‘. For the first time in a while, I didn’t feel like a square peg in a round hole.

But, when you know you’re using only one channel to connect with the multi-channel, outside world, it becomes obvious to know when you’re being too recluse. The worst part, is when you can see other people evading the chance at a natural social interaction in the fear that it didn’t sync up with their technological attachments.

It took me a while to realize that I had to not be tempted to do that in my settings as well. Being that most of the time, I can use my smarts and attention to detail, to get the job done, but can fail to check in with people organically outside work mannerisms as well. This can lead to miss interpretation and moments of exposure in unwanted situations.

It’s true that most of the time, work meetings can be replaced via email chains or that RSVP’s are nag worthy but the end point of them is to get the best package deal for the event you’re going to. So it makes sense to reduce your TV time or not watch those YouTube videos before bed so you can replace it with things of better cognitive development.

Beauty & Brains

That’s when I realized that the first place to look for the answer is in yourself. You don’t need to do soul searching for it, it can be as simple as asking yourself how many times you say ‘next time’ to a friend that asks to watch a movie because you have another Twitch stream to do. Once I got the idea of technology management, I saw that there are areas in ones work-life routine that have moments of the natural ‘unmute‘ that we keep waiting for.

In my defense, I tend to hermit in my comforts of Marvel cinema and documentaries of women in foreign politics and that tends to bore some people out. I understand that not a lot of people like to keep up with current events so the next conversation filler tends to gravitate towards the latest trendy app or your most recent phone upgrade. I’ve found a new community of girl coders on Twitter of all places that share this same type of sentiment in my over-interest for moments of ‘peace or quiet’ in our tech filled world. And so far, we haven’t stopped tweeting 😉 .