Results for: Data Hogs

Data Hogs

Posted on by Josef Havelka

A few days ago, my cellular provider informed me that we were about to reach our data limit. Actually, I was notified on July 20th and our data cycle resets August 3rd… I could not figure out how this was possible, since for months we barely hit our allotment. Between four iPhones, we share 12GB.

I checked our usage and found the culprits. Our youngest daughter had gone through over 5GB on her own in under three weeks. While our oldest had only used about 800MB. My wife had used 1GB. I had used over 4.5GB.

A story of two sisters who are very different data users:

Our oldest keeps her phone on airplane mode most of the time. She also has it set up to connect to WiFi all the time. She has conditioned herself to only go on social media when on WiFi as well which keeps her data usage low. She’s been doing this for a few years now- since her first phone.

Our youngest daughter has no concept of how much she uses her phone. She also doesn’t pay attention to whether she is on WiFi or not. This summer, she hasn’t been anywhere that requires her to be online. Turns out, while she was in our backyard sharing Instagram pictures and watching YouTube, she was never connected to our WiFi. She had been using data the entire time. And watching videos in full HD. I had to have a little talk with her about this and hopefully she will correct her behavior.

My wife works from home and hardly uses data. She likes to do comparison shopping in real-time when we are out. She does still play Pokémon Go and only checks social media when bored. I tend to use data far more frequently. I’ve always hovered around the 4GB range. But I use my phone for work quite often. Checking email, looking at maps, connecting with coworkers, that sort of thing. I also use social media a lot. That’s my crutch.

So for the past few days, I have shut off all data access to everyone. The biggest results I have found is that iMessage only works on WiFi now and Siri can’t figure out how to make a handsfree call when I drive. These are things I can live without for a couple more days. As we discuss as a family how to move forward with our shared data plan.

This could be interesting…

Please feel free to share any tips or advice on limiting our data consumption. I’m sure there are ways to still enjoy the cyber world…

2018 In Review

Posted on by Josef Havelka

I went back and took a look at my year of blogging.  I found some interesting stats about my daily musings.

I wrote 88,008 words all year.  An average of 241 words per post.  Not too shabby. Until I looked at 2017.

In 2017, I wrote 103,847 words for an average of 285 per post. uh-oh

Going back to when I first began blogging in 2016 (which I started Jan 18th) I wrote 127,373 words that first year. For an average of 374 words per post.

Clearly, my writing needs more work going into 2019.

Back to my year in review.

My top 5 viewed posts were:

Data Hogs I got a lot of comments on social media about this one. Seems like there are others like me who want better data coverage in Canada.

What To Give… This one was a tough day of parenting. I shared more feelings than facts here. It’s funny though, I used the same title later in the year for my thoughts on Christmas.

Penzer Parkour Park Which was published in June 2017. Chances are it was people looking up the park itself and stumbled on my blog.

Life Lesson Apparently I wasn’t alone in having to let kids make decisions that they need to learn from. Again, parenting can be tough.

Tied for 5th were these two blog posts:

Trip Planning at Age 11 Even though later in the year our son had to learn a tough lesson, back in January he helped plan our trip to Tokyo.

Dinner Train This was one of the most fun dates I have had with my wife. We look forward to doing it again!

I had numerous blog posts that I was happy with. However, they kind of fell into the middle of the pack. I enjoyed writing about Tokyo and traveling. As well as trying to write more positive and uplifting style blogs. Of course not everything was well received.

My worst 3 performing ones (because I don’t want to share 5) were:

Where Was My Father Figure in those 1980’s Movies? The title was kind of long. I wonder if that helped with my word count for the year?

A Day To Myself I guess people didn’t want to hear what I do when I have time to myself.

Just Music This one is so short that you could’ve been able to read it in the preview without even opening up the blog.

In looking at all of my blog posts, I am unsure of what it was about them that made them stand out or not stand out.

  • Was it the keywords?
  • The day/time I posted?
  • How I shared them?
  • The content?

I’m not sure if there is an answer as to why or why not a post is successful. Having a chance to look back at my year, I have a few goals to set up for 2019.

WRITE MORE- Obviously I was getting lazy or rushed when it came to my writing. The more I write, the more I felt the need to just get it out there. Time to fix that curse and get back to perfecting my posts before publishing.

DO RESEARCH- I need to see what I can do to get my writing out there more frequently. What I have read in  the past seems easy, but I feel that I am taking that knowledge for granted.  As I mentioned earlier, What is it that can make me stand out more?

READ MORE- I need to start reading more blogs. I have a few that I follow and truly get some great inspiration from. I want to find more authors out there that I can share ideas with and read about their experiences.

I shall continue to write every day.  I find it relaxing and a good exercise in clearing thoughts out of my mind. I hope that my reads continue to read about the thoughts on my life.

I also hope to expand my readership level. that being said, if you like any of my posts, please share them amongst friends or on social media. I’d appreciate it. And a big thank you for following along and commenting! All the best for 2019 to everyone out there!

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