Technology Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Sarah Burgess

Texting, answering emails, online shopping or simply watching endless episodes of “Friends” on Netflix; sure, we’ve heard habits like these can be bad for your eyes and attention span, but one of the most recent ailments attributed to these behaviors might surprise you.

So, what is it? Do me a favor – if you’re a millennial and regularly do the things I mentioned above, look at yourself in the mirror. If you’re like me, you may have noticed one or two horizontal lines on your neck. These could be caused by a new phenomenon called tech neck.

Now, don’t think you’re getting off the hook with just a couple lines on your neck! A new study conducted by Surgical Technology International found that tech neck can add up to 50 pounds of pressure on your spine, resulting in poor posture and other side effects.

Flicker credit: U.S. Department
of Education

Think this sounds like a bunch of malarkey? I can personally attest to the dangers of tech neck. After about a year of owning my first cell phone (in the good ol’ days of the Motorola Razr), I started having frequent, unexplained pain in my wrists. After seeing a few doctors and specialists, they concluded that I had developed carpal tunnel syndrome, and the best option to correct it was surgery. Lucky for me, I was extremely squeamish and terrified of getting surgery on my wrists. That’s right, I said “lucky.”

After unwillingly accompanying my father to his chiropractor appointment and discussing why I was wearing braces on my wrists with the doctor, we decided it couldn’t hurt for him to have a look at my spine. Turns out, being so wrapped up in texting all the time had caught up with me. My frequent texting and computer usage caused the upper portion of my spine to straighten in an unnatural manner, which pinched a nerve that shot pain down to my wrists. Crazy, right?

Now, I know it’s virtually impossible to avoid the devices that cause tech neck, but there are a few tips that can help prevent discomfort, bad posture and those unsightly lines.

• Keep your ears parallel with your shoulders.
• Stop resting your chin on your hands.
• Prop up your computer with a couple of books so your screen is eye-level.
• If you use a laptop, get a laptop stand, wireless keyboard and mouse so you’re not forced to look down so much.

Have any other tips to help prevent tech neck? Let us know in the comments below!

Vision

Lauren Hannaford

I rarely set New Year’s resolutions because I hardly ever follow them, and midway through the year, when I suddenly remember what it was I was supposed to be working towards, I find myself disappointed that I couldn’t even remember that I set one. So, going into 2015, I was feeling pretty content with not having one. No pressure, I thought. But, I heard someone speak a couple of weeks ago and was completely caught of guard with a very profound and powerful statement that resonated with me. It was so simple and clear. “If you don’t have a clear vision, no strategy will save you.”

New York Times bestselling author, speaker and consultant Michael Hyatt at January’s Lipscomb & Pitts Breakfast Club meeting made this point in his presentation, and a light bulb immediately switched on in my mind. In fact, here’s an entire blog post by Hyatt on this topic.

Now, it’s not like I haven’t heard this point before, and we often talk about what the “bigger picture” looks like for clients. But, in the complicated world of public relations, I think there are several layers of vision and strategy. You’ve got an overall vision for a client, a vision for a campaign, a vision for one story idea and a vision for one blog post. What I think is important to remember is that it’s necessary to always come back to your primary vision because it dictates where you go from there, and it leads you to your strategy.

On the other hand, having foggy vision can lead you to the wrong strategy. It can also cause you to completely miss out on something that may have been important to your client. So, it’s essential to be sure that you share the same vision with your client. Opinions may differ on the strategy, but a united vision is the only path to a successful outcome.

So, instead of setting a New Year’s resolution this year, I’m focusing on having a clear vision for my personal life, my professional life and for each of my client accounts. While things may not go perfectly throughout the year, my hope for 2015 is that my clear vision leads to successfully executed strategies.

Power of the Pen

Daniel Wade

Power of the Pen

What can you do to distinguish yourself, to set yourself apart? What is your goal, how badly do you want it and what will it take to get there? These are questions that driven individuals ponder on some level all the time but should also have application to what we do everyday. You don’t have to be creating a startup business in your basement or dissecting a corporate merger to think about these things. You can have a similar value proposition as the next guy or gal, yet your unique tactic or slant can make the difference.

Let’s get out of the clouds and into something practical that you can wrap your hands around. It’s a small yet powerful example that has made an impression on me in the last year. When was the last time you received a handwritten note? It doesn’t matter the occasion – a thank you for a gift; an appreciation for a visit or going the extra mile somehow; an out-of-the-blue acknowledgement for something you worked hard on - or, even better than these, just because. What made that special and different? From my perspective, those same sentiments may have been communicated in other ways, but they took on a new level of meaning when I held the paper and read the words.

Can I let you in on a little secret? This blog post is as much for me as anyone who happens upon this space. I’m on the laptop all day, so why can’t I just send an email? They know I love them – does it really matter if I write it out? You’re just being sappy and dramatic. My handwriting is chicken-scratch anyway. Handwritten notes are for grandparents. Here comes the big one. I just don’t have time to sit down and write out handwritten notes. They’re busy; they’ll understand.

So, here’s my small exhortation to take those big questions/thoughts from earlier and choose a simple, practical way to apply them. Be intentional. Don’t use it as a sneaky sales tactic. Be genuine. I was talking to a reporter a month or two ago, and he brought up a client by name – “Got a handwritten note from [so and so]; boy, you sure don’t see those much anymore.” I’ve had a boss who excelled at this characteristic, as well as a father who modeled this as well.

I don’t know about you, but it’s high time I picked up the pen and paper.

So, What Do You Do?

Mary Catherine Banister

Family events. High school reunions. Catching up with college friends. These are times that, in the post-graduate world, give many people (some who you probably haven’t seen in a while) the opportunity to ask you lots of questions. About everything. You know what I’m talking about? I thought so.

Now, being a recent college graduate with an exciting new career, I would expect to be asked plenty of questions about my job by those family members and friends who are interested in keeping up with my activities. I would obviously be prepared to answer their questions, but recently I got to thinking…do my family members even remotely, kinda-sorta understand what I do for a living?

So, I did an experiment. I emailed my mom, dad, grandmother and two younger brothers with the question of all questions: “What do you think I do at work?” And, even better, “What do you think public relations is?”

My parents had a solid understanding of my job (probably because I talk to them about it every day). They chalked it up to me spending my time promoting a company’s brand or image to the public and working with traditional and social media. They were also spot-on regarding how much of my time I spend writing.

One of my brothers – the one who bothered to respond (Thanks, Will!) – had more of a “Mad Men” view of what I do as a PR practitioner. He thinks that I work with various accounts to make sure they are all happy with their public image. Not bad!

My wonderful 91-year-old grandmother gave me some great insight, as well. She told me that her thoughts about what I do encompass many areas – computer skills, paperwork, sales, event planning, working with TV and radio, producing websites, writing and acting as “a connection between people and companies.” She even touched on the importance of brainstorming and research! On the surface level, she was 100 percent correct.

So, my immediate family has a decent grasp on what my job entails. However, what would I tell my extended family about the work that I, and my fellow PR professionals, do (and do well)? Would I leave it at the surface, the level that my parents and siblings know and understand? Or do I explain the importance of strategy and planning and the meticulous way we do research, develop tactics and follow up with the media?

It can be tough to explain our jobs in a way that everybody can fully grasp. The fact that we have clients from all industries, with varying goals and objectives, makes every work day different from the last. But to me, that’s what makes PR fun! So, do what you do best, and craft a little PR pitch to explain your work to everyone who stops you at your next class reunion or sits near you at family dinner. Let them know that what you do is important, and there’s no doubt that they will be impressed!