Circle Post #2 (Its rather lengthy)

To start off, let me go ahead and say that I already hate Gina. Her introduction made her seem like a stuck up bitch who was way too competitive academically in high school. When she gave Mae the spiel about the Latin origins of Communication and Community, I had this look of “really now?’’ on my face as I continued reading. Anyways, the first, second, and third screen priorities all seemed so overwhelming in terms of pure data and information rushing at a human being all at the same time. We as humans have studied our capabilities of multitasking and results show that we are creatures who do not do this well. I imagined myself in Mae’s position and thought that there is no way I can keep up with my main job, the messages from my boss and supervisors, the activities of the campus and other “Circlers”, and my own social media account. The novel has Mae digging through thousands of messages and actively responding to the ones she can respond. At the same time, she keeps up with activities her friends and families are posting like Mercer and his business and one comment regarding deer antlers that would later upset Mercer due to lack of direct communication. Let us not forget that she has to prioritize all these things at her work desk while keeping in the back of her head that all her screens displaying different messages and data are all equally important. In regards to my own personal experiences with college and multi-tasking and prioritizing, they aren’t too different with Mae’s, except mine involve less screens and more physical interactions in the real world. Being an athlete, balancing everything down to meals is like keeping my balance on a beam and juggling more than 4 balls. Classes, practice, meals, study hall, homework time, and sleep all have to fit into every day of my week. When it comes down to doing homework, it is a lot better for me than high school was. In high school, most of the homework I got from some classes was simple busy work. Sometimes, the homework would be from a class that was an elective that I had to take to simply appease the number of required classes I must take during a semester. In college, I hand-picked every class I am enrolled in and the professors are not trained teachers, but professional experts in the field of the class they teach. So I am not getting busy work that I would deem unimportant; I feel a sense of duty to do the homework because I strongly believe it will help me to succeed in the course. On the campus of the Circle, it seems like distractions are all over the place. Gyms, crochet games on the lawn, clubs, and even other people can slowly eat away a worker’s time or attention span. When Francis was telling Mae about the ankle chips, he looked at his watch and made the observation that Mae was a couple minutes “late”. I am under the impression that she gave herself only 20 minutes although she got an hour. However, she let herself get distracted from her job and as a newbie, she feels even more obligated to do her work diligently and correctly to avoid feeling shameful or feeling like she let someone in a position of management down. Here at Penn State, distractions are everywhere. The other day I was walking with my roommate from practice and we saw the sorority girls (every one of them) on bid day I am assuming and we took a detour from the shorter way back to the dorms to the lawn amidst the girls. We observed the festivities and even stopped and snapped a few snapchats. We lost a solid 10 minutes of our precious time for something we didn’t need. It’s like eating those empty calories Mercer mentioned. My girlfriend to me is not a distraction, she actually keeps me on track. She reminds me of my schedule and important dates and times and even assignments that I need to accomplish. She helps me with my math homework and keeps me focused on school more than anyone. Without her, I don’t know where I would be right now in terms of schoolwork. In a way, she is a shield to me from a lot of potential distractions around campus and for that, I am grateful. My schedule itself is a shield from distractions because I literally do not have time to indulge in anything that would be considered an “empty calorie.” I find myself lucky if I eat 2 meals a day. In high school, I always misused my free time. So not having free time forces me to use my precious time wisely and not screw around. I personally think distractions are a big deal for many people. Distractions usually come in very attractive forms for us. Our phones are our biggest distractions, and almost everyone on campus has a smartphone I’m assuming. This has become such a big deal that an app called Pocket Points has been made and in this app, you set your location as your University, and the app uses location services to see when you are not in the dorms and when you turn on the app and lock your phone, you earn points. Restaurants and stores around the campus have offered deals and coupons that you can buy using your points. For example, earn 70 points and you can get a buy one get one free entrée from Qdoba. The app is promoting locking your phone for a reward during classes and when you do homework (outside the dorms). The Circle’s success is based on the distraction of social media. So what we consider distractions now, is an important variable in Mae’s career. This book is so intriguing to me and I look forward to continue